For the Carolina Panthers, the problem is no longer hard to identify. It is the same one that kept showing up in different forms for Bryce Young and the team: too many slow starts, too often putting themselves in chase mode before the game has really settled in. David Tepper said this week that has to change, and the timing matters as much as the message. The Panthers are coming off a season in which they broke a seven-year playoff drought, won the NFC South and pushed the Los Angeles Rams to the wire in a wild-card game at Bank of America Stadium. That kind of momentum only matters if it carries into September.
Tepper made his first media availability in nearly three years this week, and his point was plain. The Panthers have to start fast in the season and in games. That is not just a slogan after last season’s division title. It is a direct response to a pattern that has followed Young since Carolina traded with the Chicago Bears to select him with the No. 1 pick in 2023. The Panthers went winless in Weeks 1 and 2 that season, Frank Reich gave Young a Week 3 reset as a rookie, and Dave Canales benched him after two games in 2024. When a team keeps having to react to its own slow opening, the issue stops being anecdotal and starts becoming structural.
Why the starts matter so much
The numbers behind Young’s early-game struggles help explain why Tepper sounded so direct. In his three Week 1 starts, Young has thrown two interceptions and gone 0-6 in games that began with too much pressure to chase. Across his career, he has a 64.0 passer rating, which ranks 38th among qualified passers, along with a 58.1 completion percentage and a 0.8 touchdown/interception rate. That is not the profile of a quarterback who has been consistently efficient from the opening snap. And yet there is another layer here: Young’s late-game production has often looked better than his early-season play. He has 12 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime, a reminder that he can help rescue games even if the Panthers would rather stop needing rescues.
That tension is why this is more than a quarterback talking point. Robert Hunt said the feeling of starting slow can hit everyone in the building, not just the offense. He talked about trying not to have that familiar sense of, in his words, “ah, s---, here it goes,” before the team has even settled in. That is an emotional description, but it also has a football meaning: slow starts can change how a team calls plays, how aggressively it protects the ball and how much pressure every drive carries. When Carolina is behind early, it is not simply playing from behind on the scoreboard. It is playing from behind in rhythm, confidence and game control.
Young framed the issue the same way, saying every year is a new year and the emphasis is on starting fast. He said the team has talked about it a lot as an organization, but also noted that the solution requires work and better communication during the week. That is where the Panthers will be judged now. Last season proved they can survive long enough to matter in the NFC South. This season will show whether they can turn that survival into something sturdier. In a division race that can swing quickly, the difference between a contender and a team stuck in recovery mode may be as simple as the first quarter. The Panthers know it. Tepper said it. Now they have to prove it.
