Andy Dalton occupies the No. 1 line at quarterback on the Carolina Panthers’ depth chart. But on the first day of the Panthers’ OTA practices on Monday, Carolina’s No. 1 offensive line spent more time working with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

“We said, ‘Yeah, get the first line with him most of the time,’” Panthers coach Frank Reich said. “Especially the center, making sure we’re monitoring who’s playing center when he’s in there. I think it will rotate through some but like to get him with the first line as much as – it won’t be 100 percent, but we’d like to get him with the first O-line.”

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Carolina’s first-team center is former Alabama standout Bradley Bozeman, and on Monday, he was snapping the football to another Alabama alumnus, Bryce Young, the first player picked in the NFL Draft on April 27.

Young called working with the Panthers’ first-team offensive line “a huge honor.” Carolina returns the offensive linemen that started the final 11 games of the Panthers’ 2022 season.

“Those are guys that have had success,” Young said. “Really good players. I’m learning everything and watching everyone operate. I think for me to be able to have communication with them, they’ve helped me out a lot. They’ve been super great to work with. When there’s something I’m not doing right, they give me feedback. They tell me what they expect out of me, and that’s what I want, that’s what I need as a rookie.”

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In addition to working with the No. 1 offensive line most of the time, Young also got more work than Dalton, which has been the Panthers’ plan.

“Just like we said, we gave Bryce more reps than Andy,” Reich said. “It’s really good for Bryce to kind of see Andy handle things the way he’s handled them. Obviously, Bryce has picked it up extremely fast. It feels like we got a good plan, and we’re doing the right thing.”

As Carolina’s offseason program shifted into another gear on Monday, Reich described Young’s performance as “10 out of 10.”

“Just complete command and control, poise,” Reich said. “You could tell the way he was seeing it, the way he was working through progressions. Accuracy in the throw, ball placement in the throw was all very good.”

Dalton gave an example of Young’s quick grasp on the Panthers’ playbook from Monday.

“We had the script, and one of the plays was written wrong,” Dalton said. “And he brought it up, just to say, ‘Hey, this is supposed to be this, right?’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, it was supposed to be a different tag on there.’ And so I think just his understanding of football is really high level. You can tell early on he’s got it.”

A three-time Pro Bowl selection in his 12 NFL seasons, including as a rookie, Dalton joined Carolina as a free-agent signing in March.

“I know the situation that we’re in here,” Dalton said on Monday. “I knew coming in that we were going to have the first pick, and we were going to take a quarterback. For me, that doesn’t change my mindset of how I’m going about every single day. I know the reality that this thing is going to be Bryce’s at some point, and right now, for me, it’s to go and just be me out there and play like I can play and practice how I expect to practice and do things like that. I think with part of that, it’s helping Bryce learn the NFL game and the mechanics of getting in and out of the huddle and all the little things that you need to learn going into it. …

“Bryce has been great from the day he got here. I think the reason why we picked him was because of his makeup. Smart kid. Nothing seems too big for him. He studies really well. He’s done a great job of learning the offense so far and being on top of everything. Natural thrower, all the stuff that you want. And so I’ve been really impressed with him.”

The Panthers have only one other quarterback on their offseason roster when NFL teams often carry four at this time of year. In addition to Dalton and Young, the other QB is Matt Corral. A third-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, the former Ole Miss star missed his rookie season because of a foot injury.

“The decision to go to three was to get Matt more reps at this point, get a good look at Matt,” Reich said.

The NFL has reached Phase 3 of its offseason calendar. During Phase 3, teams are allowed to conduct 10 days of organized team practice activity, often referred to as OTAs. No live contact is permitted, but teams can expand their workouts to include 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills.

“It was a lot of fun, just being able to compete,” Young said. “Fly around a little bit. This being the first time we were against the defense and being able to go and play fast at a full-speed tempo, it was great. Obviously, last week, it was against the coaches and walking through stuff. But being able to take the meeting room out onto the practice field, it was a lot of fun. A lot of competition, a lot of us getting after it, so it was a fun day.”

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