Frank Reich: Panthers' offensive struggles not just on Bryce Young's shoulders

Through eight quarters, Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers offense have mustered just two touchdowns.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's equated to an 0-2 start following Carolina's 20-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Monday night.

It's been an auspicious start for the 2023 NFL Draft's No. 1 overall pick, but Panthers head coach Frank Reich wasn't about to saddle Young with all the blame for the squad's tribulations -- even if he knows it comes with the position.

"Listen, head coach, quarterback, we're gonna take the heat, and that just comes with the territory, so you own that, and you understand that when you're in that position, and Bryce understands that for the position he's in," Reich said. "I can tell you this, certainly our struggle on offense, it's not one person. Again, we'll look at the film, but I thought Bryce did some really positive things, made some plays with his feet, made some good decisions, made good throws, showed plenty of things that we want to see, so I was encouraged by that."

Young, who was 22 for 33 with 153 yards and a touchdown pass to Adam Thielen in the fourth quarter, has yet to eclipse 160 passing yards in a game. Through two games, he's averaged just 4.2 yards per attempt, which is the fewest in a quarterback's first two career starts in the Super Bowl era, per NFL Research.

Young had his flashes -- with his arm and his legs -- but too often came up short against a staunch Saints defense. He's maintaining the optimism that something is being built in Carolina, even though the growing pains have been difficult to look away from thus far.

"I think there's stuff that has gone well that we can build off of," Young said. "Obviously, we're not where we need to be right now, but there's no loss of