It's looking like it could be another rough season for Carolina fans in the NFL

It's tough being a Panthers fan because no matter what changes the team makes they always seem to backfire. They haven't given their fans much to be excited about for quite some time now. While they had a fun run back in the early 2000's they have been extremely lackluster since 2016. They barely clawed their way into the playoffs in 2017 but lost the wild-card game vs the Saints. That's fine though because nobody really expected them to even make it into the playoffs, let alone do well after a regular season of barely having a winning record. They have had losing seasons ever since then and are basically a non-issue. The only reason why they ever get talked about is because the rest of the NFC-South is terrible as well.

Like most years the fans were optimistic about 2023/2024 with the addition of a new quarterback and they were actually favored to win their first game according to Vegas odds. It only took half of the game for those notions to be squashed and by the NY Jets of all people.

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There's been a lot of hype surrounding the acquisition of Bryce Young, who is in his rookie season and was the number 1 overall draft pick. Now it is a bit early to be too judgmental about this young man, but the fact that they didn't even let him play most of the game doesn't speak volumes.

He completed some passes and took hits like a champion, which is good because you can go ahead and bet on that being a regular occurrence if you are a quarterback for Carolina. They are notorious for not being able to protect their QB's for more than a few seconds.

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you better excel at scrambling if you are the quarterback for Carolina because you can count on needing this ability many many times per game as the offensive line seems to just be letting the defense walk in on nearly every snap.

There are some issues that are going to be faced with Bryce Young moving forward though. The fact of the matter is that even though he is a really good QB and has potential to be a great, he is small. There aren't many instances of QB's under 220lbs and under 6 feet tall actually excelling at any point in NFL history. Bryce is 5 foot 10 and just barely over 200 lbs. When you consider that some of the guys who are going to be tackling him weigh 100 lbs or more than he does, this could be injury city.

When watching the game vs. the Jets, who didn't even have their starting QB Aaron Rodgers, things just started to feel like it always does as a Carolina fan: Depressing. The lack of their starting QB didn't stop the Jets from relentlessly pushing forward as the Carolina defense left holes big enough to drive a truck through as the game went on as the Jets rather effortlessly cruised to a 27-0 victory in Charlotte. They probably could have put up more points than they did but by the middle of the 3rd quarter it was evident that the game was already over as the home fans headed to the parking lot to get a head start on traffic.

On the rushing side of things the entire Panthers roster rushed for an abysmal 52 yards overall. One of the Jets' running backs managed more yards than that on his own.

It was a preseason game and it is quite common for teams to not put all their chips on the table during these games. I certainly hope that was the case with Carolina, because if this is really the best they have to offer, we are in for another long and sad season.

In order for Bryce Young to have a chance to shine two things are going to have to happen: 1) They have to actually put him on the field and 2) The offensive line are going to need to somehow give him more than .5 seconds of protection after the snap.