If there will be eyes on any player in the NFL heading into this upcoming season, one has to be Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in 2023 and heading into his second season. However, he has already been getting a ton of praise from his teammate in Panthers wide receiver Adam Thielen who spoke about him on The Rich Eisen show.
While Thielen has been in the NFL for 10 seasons, it was his first with Carolina along with Young who was a rookie as both are looking to make huge strides in the upcoming season. For the University of Alabama product, Thielen said that his growth has been “awesome” to witness and he has approached this year “with confidence.”
“It’s been awesome. Not only him, just a lot of the young guys, a lot of the staff. It’s just been a great offseason to just see some of these guys who haven’t been in the league very long — just the way that they’ve come in with confidence,” Thielen said. “You can tell, Bryce’s demeanor in the building — he’s just more comfortable, right? And you don’t realize it when you start getting to be a veteran guy, just because you forget about those times.”
How Thielen and Young performed in first seasons with the Panthers
Last season, Young had an inconsisent first year as he threw for 2,877 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions as he is still adapting to the NFL, albeit with not a strong roster. On the other hand, Thielen is the type of receiver you would want your young signal-caller to have since he has been in the league for a long time and was productive like his time with the Minnesota Vikings.
In his first season with the Panthers, Thielen was once again successful as he caught 103 passes for 1,014 yards to go along with four touchdowns. The first two categories rank among the top in his long career as he was the clear cut No.1 receiver where with Minnesota, he was usually sharing the load with the likes of a Stefon Diggs or Justin Jefferson.
Thielen speaks on Young being available for offseason program
It is a bit of a different experience for Thielen and especially Young since the latter was not present for the early offseason program since he was not drafted yet. This time around, their relationship has been building as said by the 33-year old receiver.
“I’m thinking back to that like, now he’s there,” Thielen said. “Now we’re getting routes on air, we’re around each other, we’re in the locker room together, we’re BSing, talking about how great the Timberwolves are — because I’m a Timberwolves fan. So, you have that time together that we didn’t have last year.”
The pressure has always been present for Young as besides being a former No. 1 overall pick, the quarterback taken after him in that same draft was Houston Texans star C.J. Stroud who has taken the league by storm. This has prompted people to already put the label of “bust” on to Young which is no doubt a quick assumption to make based off one up and down season.
Young has confidence and urgency heading into season per Thielen
This season, Young is looking to prove the doubters wrong and take that next step as this time around, there will be a new coaching staff led by head coach Dave Canales who is tasked to progress the growth further of the talented player. For Thielen though, he has seen the change mentally for Young whether it be how comfortable he is in the locker room or the “confidence” that is present.
“So, it’s been a really cool offseason to see how he’s come back with, OK, I’ve got urgency, I’ve got confidence, I have comfortability in the system, in the facility, the locker room, and what that does for a player,” Thielen said. “I’m excited about what that looks like going into training camp.”
“Again, like I said last year and I’ll never not talk about this — things are always great this time of year,” Thielen continued. “There’s no wins, no losses, there’s no adversity. It’s all good right now, every single team thinks they can go to the playoffs and have a chance to win the Super Bowl. So we’ll see how it goes when the bullets start flying, but we’re in a good place.”
In any sense, the Panthers are looking to bounce back after last season along with Young and Thielen as they had a 2-15 record, which was the worst in the NFL. They will start their upcoming season on the road against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Sept. 8.
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