Ryan Fitzgerald drills a 61-yard field goal as Bryce Young tops brief Panthers outing

Carolina used a brief window of first-team offense to set a tone against Jacksonville, with quarterback Bryce Young playing 11 snaps and completing five of six passes for 49 yards. Even with pressure affecting three of his throws, Young’s stat line came out clean, producing a 100.7 passer rating for the Panthers’ opening work.

The game also produced a special-teams highlight when kicker Ryan Fitzgerald connected on a 61-yard field goal. Long kicks are often treated as test throws in preseason-style environments, and the make underscored Carolina’s range in a moment that did not require the offense to manufacture a full scoring drive.

Young’s performance, though limited in volume, mattered for how the Panthers managed their early reps. The 11-snap sequence gave Carolina a snapshot of timing and decision-making under contact, while also showing that the quarterback could deliver accurate throws when defenders reached him.

On the passing attempts that were disrupted, the underlying issue was not accuracy alone but the pressure rate on individual plays. The report indicated Young was pressured on three of his throws, and yet he still managed to keep completions coming, a detail that points to ball placement and release timing rather than a complete breakdown against Jacksonville’s rush.

Carolina’s offensive plan in this kind of setting typically balances evaluation and rhythm. With only a handful of series in view, the Panthers could prioritize getting Young into a rhythm, testing mid-range throws, and then shifting the emphasis to other groups, rather than running an extended first-team script.

For the Jaguars, the encouraging element was that their pressure met the quarterback during multiple attempts. Young’s completions despite that pressure do not erase the defensive takeaway, but they do suggest Jacksonville will need either cleaner lanes or higher coverage certainty to force more incompletions.

What to watch next is whether Young’s efficiency holds up once the sample expands. A short clip can flatter a quarterback, but consistent completion rates and better protection on subsequent drives would help confirm that this was more than a one-sequence snapshot. On the special-teams side, Fitzgerald’s 61-yard make raises the bar for how far Carolina will trust its kicker, especially as the preseason stage progresses toward more meaningful roster decisions.