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David Newton
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers Pro Bowl cornerback Jaycee Horn overheard the play called by Bryce Young late Tuesday during the first day of a mandatory three-day minicamp, so he shared it with the rest of the defense, down to the rout the receivers were running.
Young didn’t appreciate it.
The typically mild-mannered, soft-spoken quarterback got animated, yelling at Horn that he shouldn’t do that, saying, “Y’all should believe in yourself” and not have to resort to such things. It went on for more than 10 seconds.
It was a side the top pick of the 2023 NFL draft seldom showed, at least with media watching, in his first two years in the league.
“He’s talking way more this year,” Horn said with a laugh. “He’s talking trash every day.”
The moment was a reminder of the 2015 Panthers when then-quarterback Cam Newton trash-talked with linebacker Thomas Davis and Josh Norman seemingly every day. That once turned into a fight between Newton and Norman in training camp to start a season that ended with a trip to the Super Bowl.
Young’s jawing with Horn, with Davis and several other players from 2015 watching, was as far from starting a fight as the Panthers are from reaching the playoffs after seven straight losing seasons. But Horn and others said the heightened emotion, particularly from Young, is evidence things might be changing.
“Guys are finally sick of being the same ol’ Carolina Panthers,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said. “We want to get back to what they did here in the past, from ’15 and some of those other years where they made deep playoff runs, when they had the crowd involved and the city pumped up. That just shows guys are sick of the same ol’, same ol’.”
Horn said the trash-talking makes everyone closer.
“When I’m talking trash to the receivers and talking trash to Bryce, it’s just like brotherly love, almost like you grow closer through that,” he said. “It’s almost like fighting with your brother every day at home, and as soon as y’all go to the mall nobody else better say something to him or you’re rolling for him.”
Second-year NFL coach Dave Canales said he loves the newfound energy in Young and others, and that players are “going after each other.”
“He just has a defiance to him,” Canales said of Young. “That’s just kind of his way of competing. He’s not super-animated with it, but he definitely thrives off of that, feeds off that energy. He takes chances when he can, because Jaycee is trying to bait him into throw the ball over there.
“But it does bring a level of confidence to the guys, ‘Hey, we’re dangerous when we’re out there.”’
Horn called that a sign of progress.
“If you’ve got a guy dominating you all practice, talking trash to you, you ain’t going to have a choice but either go hard and go back at him or go in a hole,” Horn said. “A lot of guys out there ain’t gonna do that.”