Half the Carolina Panthers’ final eight games of the 2024 season went into overtime. The Panthers won three of them. That’s a thin difference between momentum for the 2025 season and a second straight two-victory campaign.

But Carolina did pull out the victories to finish with a 5-12 record after winning only one of its first eight games in the 2024 season.

“The sky’s the limit for this group,” Carolina coach Dave Canales said after the first practice of training camp on Wednesday. “I think that this is going to be a very competitive team. I don’t think people are going to want to play us by the style of football that we play. I’m expecting that. My expectations are really high for this group.”

In the final three games last season, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young threw for 612 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions and ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns. His passing-efficiency rating was 111.6. Before those games, Young’s career passing-efficiency rating was 73.6.

Carolina’s victories and Young’s play down the stretch led to the conclusion that the Panthers had found their footing at the end of Canales’ first season. After a 2-15 showing in 2023, the Panthers turned over the team to Canales, who had been the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator.

Young and Carolina started their second training camp under Canales this week.

“We’ve already bought in,” Young said, “and now it’s just making it our own, and that’s something that Coach always stresses, which is big for us. We’ve had that experience now. So, obviously, having the same coaching staff with just who this coaching staff is, we’re super grateful for them to be here, what they bring, so we have a lot of work to do, but we’re grateful for it.”

The Panthers used the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft on Young, the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner at Alabama. He started 16 games as a rookie. But two games into his tenure, Canales benched Young in favor of veteran Andy Dalton. Young filled a backup role for five games before a thumb injury for Dalton put the former Crimson Tide star back on the field, and he held the starting spot through the final 10 games.

“My expectation for Bryce is to lead this team,” Canales said, “which he never stopped doing throughout all of last year, even with the challenges that it presented. But he just came right back in, and from the moment we went out there for center-quarterback exchange, his familiarity with the system, his command of everything is just like we picked up where we left off in the spring.”

In the first 18 starts of his career, Young completed 59.3 percent of his passes, had 11 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions, averaged 173.4 passing yards per game, posted a 70.9 passing-efficiency rating, ran for one touchdown and lost six fumbles. The Panthers won two of those games.

In the 10 starts after his benching, Young completed 61.8 percent of his passes, had 15 touchdown passes and six interceptions, averaged 210.4 passing yards per game, posted an 88.9 passing-efficiency rating, ran for five touchdowns and lost two fumbles. Carolina won four of those games.

“I’m super confident,” Young said on Wednesday. “Again, that comes from just this building. You know, rely on my teammates, coaching staff who’s around me. That’s really where I get my confidence from, and I’m grateful to be a part of the organization.”

The Panthers haven’t made the playoffs since 2017, Cam Newton’s final full season as Carolina’s quarterback. In the intervening seasons, they’ve compiled a 36-80 record.

Young said the Panthers had to build on the end of last season in training camp to start digging out of that hole in 2025.

“We have confidence within ourselves,” Young said. “We understand that that comes from training camp, though. I believe in everyone in the locker room. We all believe in each other, but we have to put the work in. We know that this is the time to get better, to continue to grow as a team, to continue to forge our identity to carry into the regular season. You know, we feel great. We’re confident, but also we know we have a lot of work to do.”

Carolina’s three-game preseason schedule starts on Aug. 8 against the Cleveland Browns. The regular season begins on Sept. 7 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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