After Carolina’s 21-19 preseason loss to the New York Giants last week, Panthers coach Frank Reich said he knew rookie quarterback Bryce Young had wanted to pass more than he was allowed.

Carolina chose Young from Alabama with the first pick in the NFL Draft on April 27. In the Panthers’ two preseason games, Young has played five series and thrown 12 passes.

MORE NFL:

· TEXANS PLACE ROOKIE TACKLE FROM AUBURN ON INJURED RESERVE

· THURSDAY PRESEASON ROUNDUP: NAJEE HARRIS, KENYAN DRAKE SCORE TOUCHDOWNS

· RAIDERS GM DECLINES TO ADDRESS JOSH JACOBS-TRADE SPECULATION

“This is by design,” Young said. “I trust the coaches wholeheartedly in their approach, what they’re doing, the play-calling, everything. It is new for me. I’ve never played in a preseason game. Like there’s scrimmages in high school, I guess, but I’ve never played a game that the starters aren’t playing as much as they can. Obviously, that’s part of the league. It’s just something that’s new for me to adjust to. Our coaching staff, they’ve been here for years. They’ve had a ton of success. I have all the respect in the world for them. They don’t wake up the day before the game and just try to figure it out. They have a reason. They have a plan. Whatever that is, I don’t question it. I just go in and try to execute.”

Carolina will conclude its preseason schedule against the Detroit Lions at 7 p.m. CDT Friday at Bank of America Field in Charlotte, North Carolina. CBS will televise the game.

Reich said Young would start again for the Panthers.

“Sometimes a lot of teams won’t play their starters in the last preseason game,” Reich said. “We’re going to play Bryce and play our offensive starters. Still want to get more reps. I think we had about 20 last week or something like that. It’s kind of TBD again. It could be about the same, could be a little less, could be a little bit more. Like to get a little rhythm going, accomplish certain things, so we’ll play it by ear.”

RELATED: AARON RODGERS ON BRYCE YOUNG: ‘CAROLINA’S IN GOOD HANDS’

Carolina will open its regular season on Sept. 10 on the road against the Atlanta Falcons in an NFC South rivalry game.

Young is prepared to take the first snaps of the season for the Panthers, Reich said, but he still could benefit from playing in the preseason finale.

“I feel he’ll be ready,” Reich said. “He’s very accomplished mentally, maturity-wise. It’s always that healthy tension between getting him enough reps, getting our guys enough reps and exposing them to undue risk of injury. And honestly, when you go up against that defensive scheme that we went up against last week where it’s a blitzfest or it can be a blitzfest, how much of it is worth it? It was great to prepare for it, to have to go through the mental exercise of ‘Hey, we got to get ready for all these blitzes.’ But then it’s risk/reward on how much you play.”

While Young said a quarterback’s “job is to stay ready,” he also saw benefits in preparing for the season-opener by playing in the preseason finale.

“I feel like there’s definitely stuff I want to improve on and get better at,” Young said on Monday. “There’s stuff throughout this week that we’re looking at to grow in. And this is a different week now process-wise, so this is kind of another step in the direction of just having a more game-like process, scheduling and things like that. It’s great to have that under our belt.

“But of course, it’s our job to be ready and stay ready. And we understand when the regular season starts, but we have to do everything we can to work toward that, day in and day out.”

RELATED: PRESEASON WEEK 3: SCHEDULE, TV, ODDS

After five consecutive losing seasons, Carolina hired Reich in January, then traded into the No. 1 spot in the draft to select Young.

“I really think we’re where we want to be,” Reich said. “It’s a long process. There’s no shortcuts. There’s going to be ups and downs. There’s going to be injuries. It just happens because you got to push, you got to work hard. You got a new staff, a lot of turnover in the roster so there’s going to be working through things, communication. Every step has been really good. There’ve been bumps, highs and lows, but we’re on the right track.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.