NFC Notes: Brian Burns, Bryce Young, Panthers, Saints

Panthers

Panthers QB Bryce Young finished with 146 yards passing, one touchdown, and two interceptions in his first game but still received words of encouragement from HC Frank Reich after the game.

“Bryce is the last person I’m worried about — how he’ll handle this,” Reich said, via Pro Football Talk. “He’s got the maturity of someone way beyond his years. He’s a team-first person. He’ll be hard on himself and each of us should be. That’s kind of the message that we talked about in there. Every one of us, players and coaches, should be hard on himself in the next 24 hours. It should not taste good, and we need to eat every bit of it. Otherwise, you don’t learn and get better from it.”

“There’s not another guy in the world I’d want to work with,” Reich added. “He’s got everything you want as a player, as a leader, as a person. I thought he did a lot of good things today. I mean, he did a lot of good things. He handled himself really well on the road in a division game. We’ll evaluate it play-by-play and see any mistakes that were made, just like we will with every other player on the team. And as coaches, we’ll evaluate ourselves. [I’m] looking forward to the ongoing opportunity because it’s a great opportunity to get to work with a player and a person like that.”

Panthers

Panthers LB Brian Burns didn’t get the contract he wanted ahead of the new season and decided to take advice from teammate LB Justin Houston to “cut off the world” and decide what was best for him. Burns ultimately decided he was going to play in Week 1 even without a better deal.

“Just understanding it, just understanding how things work,” Burns said, via Darin Gantt of the team’s website. “Like this was my first rodeo, but still, I know business is business, and you’ve got to leave your emotions at the door. So every time I came in, I tried to try my best to leave my emotions outside, leave it in my car. You know what I’m saying? Coming in with a clear mind, and business is business, and whatever happens, happens.”

“No, I don’t feel like I have anything to prove,” Burns added. “I feel like I’ve done what I needed to do, and I’m just being consistent, you know. I’ve just taken the next step in my game, and I want to dominate. So coming down that first quarter, first half, whatever, that’s all that was on my mind was dominating. And I’ve just got to make sure I don’t fall out when they change the game plan against me.”

Saints

• Ian Rapoport reports that DE Payton Turner is believed to have suffered a turf toe injury, which could wind up requiring surgery.