Panthers’ Bryce Young gets $26.5 million contract update from ESPN insider originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Just when you’re out on Bryce Young, he finds a way to draw you back in.
The Carolina Panthers‘ third-year QB led an impressive victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, making multiple clutch throws in the fourth quarter of a 31-28 victory.
With that, Young moved the needle back in favor of himself being a long-term starting quarterback. It’s a measurement that has certainly gone back and forth a lot so far in an NFL career that began as the No. 1 overall pick in 2023 out of Alabama.
The next big decision the Panthers will have to make is on Young’s fifth-year option, which they’ll need to exercise by May.
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Young is under contract for 2026 regardless. The fifth-year option would put him under contract for 2027, too, at about $26.5 million for that additional season.
ESPN’s Dan Graziano thinks the Panthers will take that path, at least.
“It’s hard to really know what the long-term outlook is when the swings are this wild week to week,” Graziano writes. “The Panthers will have to decide by the first week of May whether to pick up his fifth-year option for 2027. I expect them to do that because the cost will be reasonable (around $26.5 million), but then the question becomes what to do after that.”
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Young won’t necessarily be in a spot to make any demands after this season. He’s been quite erratic.
If the Panthers can wait out any decisions on a longer-term extension until seeing even more of him in 2026, that’d probably be ideal.
Quarterbacks earn big money by virtue of the positional scarcity, but Young’s continued variance makes his evaluation as tough as anyone in a while. Carolina will just have to hope that his truest colors reveal themselves sooner rather than later.
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