CHARLOTTE — No one has to tell the Panthers, or Bryce Young, about slow starts.

Young hasn't won a regular season opener in three tries, and they haven't been great. But Bryce Young isn't one to dwell on external factors, when there are things that are well within his control.

So this offseason, that meant drilling down into the very first steps of a play, the things he does before the ball is snapped. Panthers head coach Dave Canales has said on multiple occasions through the preseason that's where he's seen the most growth from his quarterback, and that kind of intentional work is in Young's wheelhouse.

"Yeah, just having more urgency," Young said, and that sounds like a general statement, but it has a number of concrete and practical applications.

"We've talked about whether it be motion timing, just getting lined up a little quicker," Young began. "When we're sending motions, being able to diagnose things a little quicker and have confidence in that. And go with my instinct when we do have alerts and checks, being able to get in and out of those quicker, concise communication, verbally, all that stuff.

"That's stuff that coach challenged me with, and us with his offense, and I think that's brought the best out of us, out of me. Obviously now it's time for that to translate to Sundays, which is the next step. But I think everyone's done a great job of adjusting to that, accepting that challenge, and yeah, now we have to maintain it."

At a 30,000-foot level, all Young has to do is continue to build on last year, continue to show the things he has already done.

"We know we can come from behind, right?" Panthers owner Dave Tepper said Wednesday. "We know we can come from behind. We've got to start fast. We've got to start fast this season. We've got to start fast in games, right? That's it.

"If we start fast in games, start fast this season, . . . we'll be good, and we'll win. That's it."

That was a general statement, but it's particularly true for the quarterback.

He led the Panthers to their first home playoff game in a decade, and he did it by being his best when it matters the most. He excelled late in games and late in the season, with six fourth-quarter comebacks last year alone. He has 12 in his career, the most of any quarterback in the league over the last three seasons, and the second-most all-time among quarterbacks under 25.

And he also set career highs with 3,011 passing yards, a 63.6 completion percentage, 23 passing touchdowns, a 2.1 touchdown/interception rate, and an 87.8 passer rating. Over his three seasons, he's raised his completion percentage, yards per attempt, TD/INT rate, and passer rating each year.

Those are all good things.

And yet.

In his three openers, all losses, he's completed less than half his passes, for 461 yards, with two touchdowns and six interceptions and a 44.2 passer rating.

That's why he approached his offseason work intentionally, drilling into specifics rather than making big-picture attempts to fix things.

"Really, the message for Bryce, the message for the whole group is consistency," Canales said Wednesday. "And what we've seen is. We can play really great quarters at times. Can we play full games consistently week in and week out? That's my messaging. That's the goal. And consistency means: if we can play this well down the stretch of a game, or we score more points in the second quarter, how about we be consistent with all of it across the board? And that includes the first quarter. Guys, we don't need to wait around to kind of feel it out and see what's happening. Let's go get it.

"We know what we're doing, and the confidence and the knowledge of how we're trying to employ things really just leads to fast football, and we have all that. We have guys that have been in the system, guys that know what they're doing, and so my expectation is the guys come out and play great from snap one to the end."

Of course, for Young, there's obviously an added scrutiny this year, the fourth of his rookie deal. The Panthers have said consistently all offseason they believe in him, and his ability, but that hasn't come with a contract. And with every quarterback getting a new deal, he gets asked about it again. (It was Tampa Bay's Baker Mayfield this week, and Young said he was "super happy" for his division rival and predecessor here.)

"For me, it's just about football; all that stuff happens. It's outside my control," Young said. "All that stuff, other people and upstairs and agents, all that.

"It's season time. We're going into Week 1; that's all that matters. We have all the inspiration. There's a great challenge ahead of us, and our first opponent, so that's all that I have the capacity to be focused on."

And this week, that means changing the way openers have gone for them, against an opponent in Chicago, which comes with an added freight of history considering the circumstances of his arrival here.

"For us, every year is a new year," Young said. "We want to have an emphasis on starting fast; we've talked about that a lot as a team, as a unit, as an organization. But we know that that comes with work. It's about just having the best week we can possibly, going into the game with as much clear communication and being on the same page as we can. So we're excited for that challenge again. We just want to go 1-0 every week. Coach talks about it. It's the most important game of the season because the next one — that's always his mantra."