The 2024 Season Will Be Considered a Success for the Panthers If...

Winning is important and although first-year head coach Dave Canales says he expects the Panthers to compete for the NFC South division in 2024, the definition of a successful year should not hinge on what happens in the win-loss column.

This fall is all about second-year quarterback Bryce Young taking the necessary steps to show that he is someone this franchise can win with. Winning only four of five games this upcoming season is not the end of the world, especially if Young makes the aforementioned strides. This roster still has a long way to go before it can be taken seriously as a contender in the NFC, much less the division.

The good news? Canales believes Young can still live up to and maybe even exceed the pre-draft hype when surrounded with the right people.

"My approach with Bryce is it doesn't feel like a fix-it project at all," Canales told WFNZ radio back in February. "For me, what I see is an accurate passer. I see a guy who's got courage in the pocket. I see a guy who pops back up and just keeps rockin'. He's just built and wired that way. So for me, it's no different than any other quarterback. Like, what are the fundamental things? What are the most basic fundamentals that he can sink his teeth into to just take the next step into improvement. I want to make sure that he understands and I want to make sure that everybody understands the way the quarterback position is supposed to be played is you do your one-eleventh. You just do your job. And the talent, the innate ability, the first overall pick -- all that ability will fill up and we'll need those special plays three to five times a game. But we don't need it on every single snap. We just need him to be able to understand what we're trying to get done and just do his part in it. And I think that really is an approach that I've taken with a bunch of guys to alleviate that stress of having to carry something."

This is all coming from a coach who helped revive the careers of two quarterbacks seemingly on their last chance in Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield. He has a tremendous understanding of what a quarterback needs to be successful and if he's able to tap into that potential that Young possesses, it will be a bigger victory than any W on the schedule.