Panthers eye 'big picture,' to pick up 5th-year option on QB Young - ESPN

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Carolina Panthers will pick up the fifth-year option on quarterback Bryce Young and discuss whether a contract extension makes sense from the «big picture view,'' general manager Dan Morgan said Tuesday.

The option keeps the top pick of the 2023 draft under contract through 2027, when he'll be guaranteed $26.5 million.

»Bryce has shown flashes of greatness this year against high level competition,'' Morgan said at his season-ending press conference. «Just as a team we weren't as consistent as we want to be on a game-to-game basis, but that's part of what happens with a young team.

»Bryce did a great job this year, and I'm just really excited about moving forward and still developing chemistry with our receivers and just the pieces around him.''

Morgan noted Young's work ethic and the way he has taken command of the huddle as areas that showed growth.

«And then really having that translate into Sunday or Saturday,'' Morgan said. „I just felt he had a lot more command out there this year, and in realty just kind of coming into his own and getting better every week... just attacking every day.

“That's really all you can ask for from any player.''

Inconsistency was Young's biggest issue. He had a career-best 147.1 passer rating during a regular-season win against the Los Angeles Rams just one week after posting a career-worst Total QBR 14.2 in a Monday night loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

He also had a franchise-record 448 yards passing in a win against Atlanta followed by 124 yards in a loss to the New Orleans Saints. Young finished with a QBR of 47.7 that ranked 22nd among qualified quarterbacks. Carolina didn't win consecutive games since mid-October and lost its last three, including the NFC wild