On the first day of training camp this year, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur leaned back in a folding chair adjacent to his practice field.
The Packers were deep in negotiations on a megadeal for Jordan Love. Three days later, the quarterback would agree to a contract worth up to $220 million with $100 million guaranteed.
It was a deal that would rock the NFL not because Love's prior year of performance wasn't impressive, but because it was the only year Love had impressed – or even started. But the Packers still believed in their quarterback.
More specifically, they believed in the marriage of their quarterback and play-caller.
Because halfway through their first season learning each other's nuances, something had changed. Following an October game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, LaFleur realized: I don't need to keep the kid gloves on anymore. My conservative play calls aren't helping this offense. If anything, they're suffocating it.
“Early on, you’re trying to protect him – protect everybody quite frankly,” LaFleur told Yahoo Sports on July 23. “We got a little too conservative, and so the mindset was, we always have a saying around here with the coaches: ‘Shoot or shoot.’ And it was kind of more that mentality, that approach. We started doing that and our guys were making plays and it obviously served us well down the stretch.
“You're always learning to make those tweaks too whether you're the head coach, whether you're a coordinator or whatever it is. You have to be learning.”
The shift that followed was dramatic.
The Packers rebounded from a 3-6 start to win seven of their last nine regular-season games. Love threw 18 touchdowns to just one interception in the second stretch after a 14-to-10 clip in the first.
Several foundational pieces had preceded this success. But one message also rang clearly: Restricting a young quarterback isn’t always the best way to protect him. Requiring a player adapt to a system rather than a system to a player – also not always ideal.
These lessons go beyond the Packers. The Carolina Panthers are the latest student.
First-year coach Dave Canales' decision to bench Bryce Young in September surprised the league. Few defended the results of Young's early performance under Canales, but the decision to bench the 2023 first overall pick just two games into the marriage seemed hasty.
Wasn’t Canales hired to “fix” Young? And if he was, what went wrong through offseason activities and training camp that left the duo thoroughly unprepared for regular-season action come September?
As Young prepares for his first publicly guaranteed start in two and a half months, his recent uptick in play tells a story deeper than the quarterback.
“This past game really has helped win [Canales] over,” a person with knowledge of the Panthers’ decision-making told Yahoo Sports. “Slowly but surely.”
As game plan evolved, so did Bryce Young’s performance
In blowout losses to the New Orleans Saints and Los Angeles Chargers the first two weeks, Young posted passer ratings of 32.8 and 57.2, throwing no touchdowns and three interceptions in performances that impacted his own confidence and his team’s confidence in him.
He would not start again until Week 8, and only then by necessity: Veteran Andy Dalton had sprained his thumb in a car accident.
But if necessity is the mother of invention, for Carolina it was the mother of reinventing – or at least retooling – schematic principles.
Canales arrived in Carolina after a career of working with veterans. He was Russell Wilson and Geno Smith’s quarterbacks coach with the Seattle Seahawks, and then Baker Mayfield’s offensive coordinator with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Young’s mental bank of defensive looks was far more limited, even if his potential abounded. Canales needed to learn: How best to protect a young quarterback?
“You can see it in his play calls now,” the person close to the Panthers said of Canales. “Less screens to protect him and more aggressive throws down the field to open it up.”
Downfield shots, early-down throws and play action have trickled into game plans.
After attempting just four passes off play action in each game before he was benched, Young attempted 10 in Sunday's 30-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, completing six for 96 yards and a touchdown, per TruMedia. On passes of 10+ air yards, he completed 9 of 16 attempts for 165 yards, generating a career-best completion percentage over expected of 14.0% (minimum five attempts), per Next Gen Stats.
Young’s efficiency has improved in each of his five starts, his latest 92.9 passer rating the quarterback’s best in Canales’ system. And he’s coming off a career-high four passes into tight windows, including a touchdown.
“I think all of us receivers would say we want him to do more of that,” Adam Thielen said. “He doesn’t have to be perfect. He can just go out there, play free, have fun.”
Part of his downfield success stems from trusting his targets. Another part reflects an improved navigation of the pocket.
“He’s trusting his protection and being decisive,” the person close to the team said. “Knowing when to climb, when to side-step, when to bail backwards and when to scramble. You’re starting to see the timing, rhythm and anticipation that he did so well at [Alab]ama come to life.”
Young deserves credit for it all, and for how his performance has developed in spite of a rotating cast of receivers and a backup center. Canales’ role is relevant, too. The play-caller seems willing to give Young the chances to keep validating the team’s trust. The intangible result has similarities to what Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel did for Tua Tagovailoa after the quarterback’s rocky career stint with Brian Flores.
Scheming his player to confidence.
Maintaining confidence will be key for Panthers, Young growth
As the Panthers prepare for Sunday’s game against a Buccaneers team with many of Canales’ 2023 players, they hope to build on the performance against the Chiefs that left them both frustrated and hopeful.
Canales described the emotions of losing to the Chiefs as a “combination of sick to our stomachs for letting an opportunity get away against a really good team and then also, think the guys can just feel what’s happening.
“We are becoming us. We’re becoming the style of football we want to pride ourselves on.”
The vision for that brand includes an anticipatory quarterback who is throwing off his back foot to receivers with whom he’s built chemistry. It emphasizes play-calling aggressiveness to open up the field without hurting ball security too punishingly. The Panthers know that their playmaking needs to be more consistent, third-down and red-zone efficiency areas of growth whereYoung’s return has not yet produced.
“There’s a lot of meat left on the bone,” Canales said. “It’s still got to be about the finish.”
The Buccaneers are six-point favorites.
Tampa’s defense will challenge the Panthers, Todd Bowles’ aggressive scheme blitzing ninth-most in the league at 30.6%. The Panthers draw optimism from Young’s performance against Kansas City, when he was blitzed on a season-high 40% of dropbacks but he completed 11 of 14 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, per Next Gen Stats. He extended more plays and found more answers to defensive problems.
"I'm like oh, that's the Alabama Bryce, that's cold," inside linebacker Trevin Wallace said. "I love seeing him making plays. Because a lot of people, I feel like, doubted him a little bit. He's showing the doubters wrong. I love that about Bryce. He's got that confidence about him and I love it."
He’s got confidence, too, from his team.
And unlike the beginning of the season, it seems Young’s gaining the confidence of his head coach. The Packers saw what that confidence can breed. The Dolphins, too. Will the Panthers next?
“I’m just proud of Bryce for the way he’s handled everything,” Canales said. “Each week, there’s been improvement in the things he’s doing.
“He’s making a statement to all of us.”