CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The line of kids and parents, most of whom were under umbrellas, snaked back to Quail Hollow Road on Saturday morning as they waited to sign in for Bryce Young’s third annual football camp.Lightning forced everyone into their cars for a half hour and pushed back the start at the Harris YMCA. But after the weather cleared and everyone had registered, the campers formed a tunnel on the waterlogged field that Young ran through while slapping hands.Young then gathered the young players around him and opened his camp with a message about mental health, which remains the emphasis of his Young 9 Foundation. Young’s dad, Craig, a marriage and family therapist, told the kids it’s OK to have troubles, but they should share them with people they love and trust rather than keeping them inside. Leslee Frye, Young’s aunt and a school psychologist, led campers through a quick mediation exercise as she has every year at the event.Then the drills began. And watching Young work his way around the various stations while engaging kids in conversation, high-fiving them and answering their questions, the thought occurred that regardless of what you think about Young the player, the Carolina Panthers and the Charlotte community are lucky to have him as a person.Over the next year or so, the Panthers have a decision to make about Young, specifically whether they want him to continue as their starting quarterback, and how much they want to pay him to do it. It’s a decision that will shape the future of the franchise, and one that will loom over everything until the Panthers decide he’s worthy of a second contract, or they don’t.Brandt Tilis, the Panthers’ executive VP of football operations, called Young an “ascending player” last summer before Young posted career highs in every major statistical category and led the Panthers to the playoffs for the first time since 2017. Tilis said in March the team was still evaluating Young and had not had any discussions with his agent about an extension.“Nothing’s changed. I got the eval right. He was ascending. So, nailed that,” Tilis told reporters. “I was happy about that.”When he was in Kansas City, Tilis spearheaded the Chiefs’ 10-year, $450 million extension with Patrick Mahomes in 2020. That one was a no-brainer: Mahomes was the MVP in his first season as a starter and won a Super Bowl ring in his second.The case for a Young extension is more nuanced. While Young had a 448-yard passing day at Atlanta and went toe to toe with Matthew Stafford in his first playoff game, he’s prone to inconsistent stretches. While he took another step forward in 2025, he still finished in the middle of the pack statistically among quarterbacks.The 2026 season sets up as a big one for Young and the Panthers, who will look to keep the good vibes going after recapturing a fanbase that had been numbed by seven years of losing, coach firings and QB changes. But Young isn’t attaching extra significance to it.“It is a very, very important year for me, just like every single year is,” he told The Athletic before Saturday’s camp. “I don’t take my job for granted. I’m very blessed to be able to go out there and be the quarterback for an NFL team, for the Panthers. There’s never a time that’s not important, never a time that that’s not the biggest priority.“Of course, it’s huge. Coach talks about it all the time — every day has to be the most important day. Every practice has to be the most important practice. I try to take that mentality into all I do.”It’s appropriate Young referenced practice. And with apologies to Allen Iverson, yes, we’re talking about practice. Young added some spice to the Panthers’ first OTA session last week when, after a few receivers dropped passes following a sudden rainstorm, the normally chill Southern California native lit into his teammates with a couple of four-letter missiles.Young’s outburst became a thing online, with the NFL’s X account sharing video of it. Young seemed amused by the attention, but acknowledged his words had a purpose.“I’m not proud of the language. I’m not advocating for that. But I am super grateful for my foundation, for the stuff we get to do here, for everything I can be in the community. And also my day job is very important to all that,” he said. “And when I walk into the building at work, my job is to move the team. My job is to be our leader. My job is to be whatever the team needs to be.“As a leader, it’s on me to be pushing everyone, to challenge everyone to uphold the standard that we have set. It has to be early. It has to be often. We know there’s so much work to do. We have a great opportunity, a great locker room, a great group of guys. But we still have to earn everything.”Many of those guys showed up Saturday morning in support of their quarterback. The group included veteran offensive tackle Taylor Moton, newly acquired linebacker Devin Lloyd, running back Jonathon Brooks and offensive additions John Metchie and AJ Dillon.Bryce Young high-fives a camper Saturday at his annual football camp at the Harris YMCA. (Joseph Person / The Athletic)Panthers coach Dave Canales brought three of his children. Offensive coordinator Brad Idzik, special teams coordinator Tracy Smith and Tilis also attended, as did several other staffers. That’s a big turnout on a rainy Saturday morning in May, and indicative of how teammates and coaches view Young.“The camp is just actually who he is every day: Going out of his way to make that personal connection with each individual. He’s the same way in the building. He’s the same way on the team with the guys. So that’s just the man he is,” said Metchie, a wide receiver who played with Young at Alabama.“So it’s special to see it when it’s out here and it’s with kids and it’s in a fun environment like this, where he can just relax and be in an environment that he loves.”There’s an authenticity to Young that was apparent Saturday, when he would find kids waiting in line to run a sprint or catch a pass and speak to them. At a pre-camp news conference, he announced a new partnership with the Special Olympics and recalled attending youth camps hosted by NBA stars like Russell Westbrook and participating in leagues at the Pasadena YMCA.Like Cam Newton, Young’s impact has grown as he’s become more entrenched in the Carolinas. He’s having conversations with young people about a topic that too often is swept under the rug.Young’s community work and leadership won’t tip the scales in his favor at the negotiating table. But for an organization that has tried to build a positive culture under Dan Morgan, Canales and Tilis by bringing in high-character players, it should count for something.