The Facts: Young has officially ascended to the throne. The Alabama product and No. 1 overall pick took his place atop the highest of Panther pedestals Thursday, joining the starting lineup for the first time in Carolina's organized team activities. HC Frank Reich told reporters this is all part of his plan to have Young ready to go for training camp, the regular season and beyond. "Bryce has taken the snaps with the ones this week," Reich said Thursday. "That was something at the beginning that (general manager) Scott (Fitterer) and I kind of earmarked the time when we thought would be best. Kind of mapping out, talked it through with the staff, you know, at the beginning of the offseason, this was kind of the time that we had marked this week to just kind of move him up."

Diehards Line: All that said, Young isn't the official starter. "Not yet," Reich said when asked if he felt comfortable naming Young the Week 1 starter. "He's showing everything you want to see. But again, this goes back to even the draft, you don't make a decision until you have to make it, right? We'll just keep giving him and our team the opportunity to get better and to earn that starting role. So far, he and a lot of our guys are taking the steps needed to earn that spot. But we don't have to make that decision yet, so we'll just kind of keep chugging along here." Reich is, in typical coach fashion, avoiding speaking in absolutes when it's early June. For all intents and purposes, though, this is Young's job, and Young's team.