Who will be key in deciding the fate of the Carolina Panthers offense this season? Well, since they don’t have a clear No. 1 target in the passing game, it could be a whole committee.
CBS Sports writer Jared Dubin recently named each NFL team’s offensive x-factor for the upcoming 2023 campaign. For the Panthers, their success will likely hinge on what their rookie quarterback has to throw to:
In trading up to acquire the No. 1 overall pick that was used to select Bryce Young, the Panthers surrendered their No. 1 wide receiver, D.J. Moore. This offseason, they brought in Adam Thielen and D.J. Chark to complement incumbent wideouts Terrace Marshall and Laviska Shenault, and then they drafted Jonathan Mingo in the second round. At tight end, they signed Hayden Hurst to work with Ian Thomas and Tommy Tremble at tight end. With Frank Reich calling plays and a strong offensive line, the potential is there for Young to hit the ground running. That is, if the aforementioned group of players can be a league-average (or better) pass-catching group. But if the talent does not measure up and Young is left throwing into tight windows all the time, he’s likely to struggle.
Dubin offers a much more delightful outlook on Carolina’s weapons, who haven’t been the most heralded bunch amongst his contemporaries. Heck, wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson even said back in May that they’re a group that’s “under construction.”
But—as a wise man may have said sometime earlier this offseason—it takes a village to get where Reich, Young and the Panthers want to be . . . and the members of that village are already hard at work.
