You know your team is causing heartburn when at the concession stand along with hats, peanuts and beer they are selling Pepto Bismol.
Fans of the Carolina Panthers have been taken on a rollercoaster ride this season and in recent years that has many of their fans hunched over in pain. Ten years ago, they were favored in the Super Bowl, a game they lost to Peyton Manning and his Denver Broncos. Two years ago, they hocked their future in hopes that taking Bryce Young with the first pick in the draft would provide them a franchise quarterback.
So far, that hasn’t worked out.
If they wanted to, the Panthers could take credit for making the Chicago Bears relevant and a first-place team in the competitive NFC North Division. It was with the Bears that the Panthers shipped a bevy of high draft choices and a first-string receiver to for the first pick in the 2023 draft. They moved up to make Young the first pick that year.
In the succeeding years, while the Panthers dropped to being the worst team in football, the Bears cashed those high draft picks and built one of the best rosters in the league. Meanwhile, Young has always been on the verge of a washout only to offer glimpses of hope. His first look as an adequate quarterback appeared down the stretch of last season when after a horrible start and being benched, he returned to the lineup and led the Panthers to a pair of wins over the final three games of the 2024 season.
His showing offered hope to the Panthers brass that maybe the kid was ready to reach the heights they anticipated when they spent “too much” in draft picks to acquire him. So, they started this season with hope, which gave fans more reason to head to their medicine cabinets when early season results did not match last year’s late season success.