CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers GM Dan Morgan said Tuesday at his end-of-season news conference that the team will pick up the fifth-year option for quarterback Bryce Young.
Young’s fifth-year option is worth an estimated for $26.5 million for the 2027 season, per Over the Cap.
The Panthers drafted Young with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft and the 24-year-old quarterback has started 44 regular-season games (he’s 14-30). He’s made one playoff start — this season’s wild-card playoff loss against the Los Angeles Rams.
“I think Bryce has shown flashes of greatness this year against high-level competition,” Morgan said. “As a team, we weren’t as consistent as we wanted to be on a game-to-game basis. … I think Bryce did a great job this year and just really excited about moving forward and him still developing chemistry with our receivers and just the pieces around him.”
Morgan said he and executive VP of football operations Brandt Tilis are still talking about whether they would start extension talks with Young before the 2026 season.
Young had his best season in 2025. He set career-highs in passing yards (3,011), completion percentage (63.6) and TD passes (23).
Dan Morgan: Panthers will pick up Bryce Young’s fifth-year option.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) January 13, 2026
After the Panthers finished 2-14 his first season and 5-12 last season, they won the NFC South with an 8-9 record in 2025. The Panthers lost to the Rams last Saturday, 34-31. In that game, Young completed 21-of-40 passes for 264 yards, a touchdown and interception. He also had a 16-yard TD run. His 7-yard TD pass to Jalen Coker with 2:39 remaining in the game gave Carolina a 31-27 lead. But Matthew Stafford led the Rams on a game-winning drive that culminated with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Colby Parkinson with 38 seconds left in the game.
“I just felt like he had a lot more command out there this year, and really just coming into his own and getting better every week and just attacking every day,” Morgan said. “And that’s really all you can ask for from any player, let alone your quarterback.”
The significance of the fifth year
Picking up Young’s fifth-year option was pretty much a given after the way he finished the 2024 season and his growth and development this season in Year 3. Still, Morgan’s decision to announce it three days after the season ended — and nearly four months before the May 1 deadline — was a strong show of support for a quarterback who was benched by Dave Canales two games into the 2024 season. Canales wasn’t in Charlotte in 2023 when the Panthers traded DJ Moore and all those assets to Chicago so they could take Young with the No. 1 pick. But Morgan was — as Scott Fitterer’s assistant GM — and he and the other decision-makers believe Young is ascending.
So what’s next?
That’s the bigger question: Are Morgan, Canales and Tilis convinced enough that Young is the QB capable of taking the Panthers to the Super Bowl that they start extension talks now or wait until after the 2026 season? Morgan said he and Tilis are still working through that conversation, and the sense here is they’ll wait — in part because they can. It’s worth noting that former Panthers GM Dave Gettleman waited until the summer before Cam Newton’s fifth year to sign him to a five-year, $103.8 million extension.
