Two years can change almost everything.
Through two games in 2024, Bryce Young had thrown zero touchdowns and three interceptions. He had produced 245 passing yards. His passing EPA sat at minus-39.9, the third-worst start by a quarterback with at least 50 attempts through two games since 1999.
The numbers carried more weight than an ordinary slow start. Young entered 2024 already under scrutiny after a difficult rookie season, when the former No. 1 overall pick went 2-14 as a starter. Two games into his second season, Carolina made the decision to bench him.
At that point, the questions surrounding Young extended beyond whether he could turn around a season. They centered on whether he could become the quarterback Carolina thought it had drafted first overall.
Two years later, the numbers that once made the case against Young are now making a very different one.
Through the first two games of 2026, Young has thrown six touchdowns against one interception, accumulated 648 passing yards and produced 26.6 passing EPA.
The difference between those two versions of Young? 66.5 expected points.
| # | Season | passing epa |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2023 | -21.8 |
| 2 | 2024 | -39.9 |
| 3 | 2025 | -12.2 |
| 4 | 2026 | 26.6 |
For perspective, Young's 2024 start sits between Chris Simms' 2006 season (-40.0) and Andy Dalton's 2017 season (-38.8) among the worst two-game starts in the dataset. Only Simms and Donovan McNabb in 2003 (-49.6) opened worse among quarterbacks with at least 50 pass attempts.
Now, Young is on the other side of the historical spectrum.
His 26.6 passing EPA through two games is the highest by a Carolina Panthers quarterback through the first two games of a season in the available data, ahead of Steve Beuerlein's 22.8 in 2000, Jake Delhomme's 21.6 in 2007 and Cam Newton's 19.9 as a rookie in 2011.
But perhaps the most striking comparison is McNabb.
McNabb was already an established star by then, making the circumstances of his turnaround different from Young's. But statistically, the two reversals are remarkably similar.
In 2003, McNabb opened the season with 334 passing yards, zero touchdowns and three interceptions. His passing EPA through two games was minus-49.6.
Two years later, he opened 2005 with 599 yards, six touchdowns and one interception. His passing EPA: 17.4.
That represented a 67.0-point swing.
Young's swing from 2024 to 2026 is 66.5.
The resemblance extends beyond EPA. Both quarterbacks went from zero touchdowns and three interceptions to six touchdowns and one interception over the same two-game, two-year span.
There are important limits to a comparison this early. Two games are still only two games, and a strong September does not tell us what Young's full 2026 season will become.
But the size of the reversal is already measurable.
Young began 2024 with one of the worst two-game passing stretches in more than two decades. Two years later, he has produced the best two-game start by a Panthers quarterback in that same time span.