Bryce Young played in his 2nd preseason game for Carolina Panthers. How did he do?

Rookie quarterback Bryce Young demonstrated some progress Friday night in his second NFL exhibition game with the Carolina Panthers.

Young engineered a 15-play, 62-yard scoring drive in his second and final series with the Panthers against the New York Giants in what ended up as a 21-19 New York win. Young’s march ended with a 37-yard, second-quarter field goal from Matthew Wright, which gave Carolina its first points of the preseason.

Young only played two series for Carolina in the road game against the Giants, as Panthers head coach Frank Reich was careful with the rookie on which so much depends in 2023.

“I thought Bryce looked sharp,” Reich said afterward, and he wanted to make the point so clearly that in the same press conference he later used variations of that same sentence two more times.

Young’s first series Friday was a quick 3-and-out even though the Panthers began with a 1st-and-5 situation after a penalty. It was the third three-and-out in a row for Young and the first-team offense, dating back to the 27-0 Week 1 preseason loss to the New York Jets last week. In that one, the Panthers only managed one first down in Young’s three series.

Young’s two series Friday night comprised 18 offensive plays (including the field-goal attempt), compared to the 11 plays in three series Young played a week ago. That’s because the Panthers moved to five first downs this time with Young, all of them in their second series, advancing as far as the Giants’ 10 before retreating when Young got sacked and the Panthers committed two penalties (a holding and a delay of game).

“Put together a nice drive,” Reich said of that 10-minute march. “Would have liked to have us finish it off. Obviously unhappy with the number of penalties we had.”

Still, it was promising, especially compared to the low bar set a week ago.

“It’s always good to put points on the board,” Young said. “That’s a huge goal for us as an offense.”

Young went 3-for-6 throwing the ball Friday for a modest 35 yards, but included in that was a third-and-6 completion to Adam Thielen for 7 yards and a 15-yard strike off play-action to fellow rookie Jonathan Mingo for another first down when Young beat a blitz. Those plays helped his second drive last for 10:21 — a clock-chewing march that got Young into the red zone for the first time in his NFL career.

Young also showed smarts and athleticism on a defensive offside penalty on the Giants to take a deep shot, because he had a free play. Although the throw didn’t succeed, Young made an impressive scramble to get it off, and it was exactly the sort of throw a veteran QB would make in the same situation.

There were some downsides, too. Young could have managed to call a timeout instead of taking the delay of game penalty, and his decision-making wasn’t perfect as he processed his receivers’ routes.

But he did show that when he gets some blocking — left tackle Ickey Ekwonu allowed a sack and rookie Chandler Zavala got a holding penalty after starting at right guard, one that wiped out a tight-window throw from Young to tight end Hayden Hurst — he can make some plays.

Young was replaced midway through the second quarter by third-string quarterback Matt Corral, as veteran second-stringer Andy Dalton once again didn’t play in the preseason for the Panthers. Corral entered the game with the Panthers already down, 14-3.

It’s quite possible Young won’t play in the final preseason game on Aug. 25, at home in Bank of America Stadium against Detroit. Reich wouldn’t commit one way or the other about this possibility and Young said “I’m going to trust the coaches” as to whether he should play or not.

I’d bet Young doesn’t play.

I sure wouldn’t play him.

Many team’s don’t play their starters in the third preseason game, and the Panthers have even more incentive not to show Detroit anything or anybody important since they also play the Lions in the regular season on Oct. 8. If Young doesn’t play, the rookie would end his preseason with 12 total passes, five total drives and three total points, but also with no turnovers and, most importantly, no injuries.

Send the rookie to Atlanta for the Week 1 game on Sept. 10 knowing he’s healthy — that’s the most important thing now. Figure it out from there.

For the Giants, starting quarterback Daniel Jones — who has all sorts of deep Charlotte and Duke connections — had a near-perfect drive in the first quarter, going 8-for-9 for 69 yards and a touchdown. That was Jones’ only series of the night. The Giants led the Panthers, 21-3, at halftime, meaning Carolina was outscored 48-3 in the first six quarters of the preseason.

However, the Panthers made a late comeback in this one, outscoring the Giants 16-0 in the second half when both teams were playing their backups to make the game much closer. The attempted comeback fell short when Carolina couldn’t make a single first down from its own 20 in the final two minutes under fourth-string quarterback Jake Luton, who earlier in the fourth quarter had thrown Carolina’s first TD pass of the preseason.