If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough.
Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young tried and failed a few times this morning, as he tossed some interceptions during Wednesday’s session of training camp. In what may have been his worst outing of the summer thus far, the second-year passer mistakenly found the hands of defensive lineman Shy Tuttle and cornerback Troy Hill for a couple of picks.
Bad day for Bryce Young today.
Troy Hill steps in front of a sideline pass to Thielen for a pick six.
Had a potential pick dropped a few plays earlier and appeared to be running gassers after he was picked off by Shy Tuttle.
— Josh Klein (@joshkleinrules) August 14, 2024
After practice, head coach Dave Canales was asked about the turnovers—or, depending on how you look at it, the takeaways.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s us right?” Canales replied. “We’re preaching it every day. Defensively, the stress is on attacking the football. The more opportunities we get to punch at the ball—with the ball carriers, runners, whoever it is has it—the higher percentages you have of getting one of those balls out. And just, of course, taking advantage of our interception opportunities. We’ve had more opportunities in this camp and we just didn’t come up with the catches. So, glad to see guys finishing on that—the intent and the focus.
“And on the flip side of it, offensively, it looked like a great day. Get into the last period of it, we throw an interception early in that part and it makes everything feel horrible. But it’s like, nothing’s wasted. It was a great day of work. But it just goes to show how critical the ball is and why we have to continue to heighten our awareness and execution in those areas.”
Flipping it back to the bright side, the interceptions should be a much-welcomed sight for the Panthers—who finished last in the NFL in takeaways this past season. Despite allowing the fourth-fewest yards per game in 2023, Carolina amassed the fewest interceptions (11) and fumble recoveries (three).
Canales was then asked specifically about Young’s performance on the day.
“Turnovers are always just something that we wanna continue to look at and say, ‘What happened here?’ and just get to the bottom of it,” he stated. “The interceptions happen when we’re trying. So I have no problem with that. If we’re not throwing interceptions, we’re not trying stuff, we’re not trying to make those tight throws. And we know NFL football is tightly played.”
Well, we’ll get a clearer picture of NFL football tomorrow—when the New York Jets come to town for a joint practice.
