the Carolina Panthers They were on the verge of the biggest upset of the 2026 NFL Playoffs. Sure, there are still a dozen games left, but it’s hard to imagine any other team being more than 10.5 points behind at home going forward.
That’s exactly where Bryce Young landed against a swarming defense, unpredictable special teams plays, and some off-season plays. Los Angeles Rams Drops left him to fly a seven-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Coker for a 31-27 lead with under three minutes to play. It was a calm, confident moment from one of the league’s most volatile midfielders. Young reached the top of the NFC South despite failing to record consecutive games with a passer rating of over 100. He was supported by The league’s No. 23 defense. And yet, here he was, on the verge of the Panthers’ first playoff win since Cam Newton nearly handed the franchise a Super Bowl title following the 2015 season.
It wasn’t to be. Matthew Stafford did Matthew Stafford things, elevating Colby Parkinson to interim star status with a brilliant lateral throw and a lead-off touchdown. This paved the way for Young to realize his potential and prove that he could be the star that Carolina envisioned after trading multiple first and second round draft picks along with wide receiver DJ Moore just for the privilege of drafting him.
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Young had 32 seconds and three timeouts trailing 34-31. He needed a 35-yard gain in order to keep the Panthers’ season alive with a long field goal attempt.
He got zero.
Young was pressured on three consecutive putbacks, resulting in scrambles and throws that ultimately went nowhere. On fourth down, he delivered a catchable low blow to rookie Jimmy Horn Jr., a player who finished 2025 with 11 fewer goals than Hunter Renfrow, who played six games. Horn couldn’t corral that one. The Rams ran away.
This is Jung’s dualism. He is sometimes capable of greatness. When he targets a receiver he trusts, like Tetiroa McMillan or Coker, he succeeds. He completed eight passes that traveled more than five yards down the field. All eight of them were in these two places.
When asked to lift the rest of the lineup, he struggles. This pairing accounted for 215 of his 264 yards on Saturday (81 percent). It will always be difficult to maintain that even with a win. But with his season on the line, Young failed to make the other players on the depth chart behind him more than just backup players.
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The question now is whether this is a small flaw or one owned by the Panthers roster management. Carolina took the gold with McMillan and Coker outperformed expectations while healthy in his second season after joining the team as an undrafted rookie. But 2024 first-round pick Xavier Legette finished his playoffs with eight yards on four targets. Three of those goals came more than 10 yards away. None of them were arrested.
The Panthers’ tight ends totaled 638 receiving yards this regular season. If you combined them all into one football, Voltron would still rank 12th among all players at that position. In the Wild Card round they had three catches for 22 yards, all from Tommy Trimble.
Meanwhile, Young averaged just 0.02 Expected points added (EPA) for each regression. His first-quarter interception in Rams territory was the most impactful play, in terms of EPA, In the entire game. It was a promising escape from pressure to climb the pocket before eventually delivering an inaccurate hit into a crowded space in the middle of the field.
Such games go a long way in exposing good faith in the third and tenth round of relegation:
Or a beautiful hit on a deep ball on the first read:
This is the razor’s edge that Young walks on. He shows enough accuracy and talent to back up his draft credentials. Then he finds a way to give himself enough room to stumble to his feet. After a season in which flawed quarterbacks like Tua Tagovailoa and Kyler Murray were signed to massive extensions, resulting in their head coaches being fired with franchises on the hook for major hits to the salary cap, the Panthers have a lot to think about.
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Bryce Young is a quarterback you can talk to. Bryce Young is a quarterback you can talk about. Over the course of the chaotic 60 minutes of Wild Card, he showcased both.
His contract runs for at least one more season and potentially two once the Panthers pick up the fifth-year option on his rookie deal. That’s two years to prove he can be better than the guy stuck throwing passes to ghosts with his season on the line on Saturday.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: The moment was too big for Bryce Young