John Metchie’s bond with Bryce Young starts at Bama. It’s ‘deeper than football’
Bryce Young saw something.
John Metchie didn’t.
But the wide receiver trusted his quarterback anyway.
It was an 11-on-11 live rep toward the end of Sunday’s Carolina Panthers training camp practice. Young was running around the backfield, eluding pass rushers, keeping his eyes downfield. He resembled the creator he was while breaking records at Alabama — the scamperer who turned nothings into somethings, the quarterback who won a Heisman Trophy and then became the first pick of the 2023 NFL Draft.
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Young was rolling left, specifically, on this play, when he pointed for Metchie to cut inside. Metchie didn’t see what Young saw. Couldn’t see the safeties dropping back and the corners “overrunning” to the left. But Metchie had seen this version of Young before when the pair played two years for the Crimson Tide together. So he trusted him.
And not only did it work, yielding a big gain. But after practice, it brought a big smile to Metchie’s face as he recalled it.
“You play football for so long with somebody — and it’s not even about how long, maybe it’s at such a high level, or whatever — but all that nonverbal communication, that understanding of the game together, trusting each other … I guess a lot of that is a connection,” Metchie told The Charlotte Observer.
He elaborated.
“It’s that trust,” he continued. “It’s definitely that trust. When I found my pocket, I could see him. It’s that trust in what he sees as well. Sometimes he trusts in a pocket I see.”
That trust has helped Metchie shine through the offseason program and three training camp days to date. It’s helped him stand out in a still-crowded wide receiver room.
It’s also been there in a way, Metchie said, that’s “deeper than football.”
First, the training camp part:
Metchie is in the midst of a pretty intense position battle — one with much more talent than the Panthers have had in recent years.
Tetairoa McMillan is last year’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and is the player the passing offense runs through. Jalen Coker, fresh off a multi-year contract extension, is expecting a big year. Xavier Legette has lost weight and gained confidence. Rookie Chris Brazzell, the team’s third-round pick, was head coach Dave Canales’ “favorite” prospect in the entire draft this year.
Opportunities for the rest of the receiver group are sparse. And if the Panthers keep seven wideouts like they have each of the last two years — the two years Canales has been here — it’ll be a tough puzzle to put together. Do you keep Brycen Tremayne for his special teams acumen? What about players who can spell out in the slot like Jimmy Horn Jr. and Metchie? And how can you not consider Ja’Seem Reed, who has had a really strong camp thus far?
For Metchie, it certainly doesn’t hurt to recount the success the 5-foot-11, 187-pound receiver has had with Young. With Young starting in 2021, Metchie recorded 96 catches for 1,142 yards and eight touchdowns, according to College Sports Reference — all collegiate career highs. The speed with which he plays and the professionalism with which he carries himself doesn’t hurt, players and coaches say.
The chemistry with his QB is evident during camp, too. Take it from the person tasked with making those final cuts: Canales.
“There’s a big-time trust factor there,” Canales said of Metchie and Young. “Whether if it’s just knowing that he’s going to break the route at the right time, or even after the play, with some of those scramble opportunities Bryce has found him on, there’s just an immediate chemistry.”
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Said veteran tight end Tommy Tremble of Metchie: “His confidence is growing every single day. And he’s making plays, man.”
But to encase Metchie and Young’s connection just to the football field wouldn’t be emotionally honest.
The two have seen each other go through immense highs and lows.
That’s especially true for Metchie. Consider his story. The Taiwan-born player mostly grew up in Ontario, Canada, before moving to the U.S. in high school and seeing his career as a football player ascend. That ascension peaked in 2021 at Alabama — but it also dropped there, too. In the final game of his college career, Metchie suffered an ACL tear. That was already a setback. Then, months later, ahead of a rookie season he likely wouldn’t play anyway, he was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia.
Young was among those to reach out to Metchie in his time in the hospital, Metchie said.
Why?
“It’s deeper than football,” Metchie said. “We were teammates for a long time. So he definitely did. And a lot of Bama guys did. That brotherhood reached out just for support, letting me know that they were praying for me, like Bryce and his family and all those things. That’s really all you can ask for in times like that: support and hope that the person is surrounded by the people they love.”
Metchie has since earned a new perspective on football, on life, he said. It’s informed him through his first three seasons in the league. That includes the first two with the Houston Texans, in which he only started three regular-season games. That also includes 2025, when he was traded midseason from the Eagles to the Jets, and in nine games for New York caught 29 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns.
“When you have that (perspective), you can work and actually bring your best rather than adding a lot of external unnecessary pressure, which you actually can’t control,” Metchie said.
He added of this year’s mindset: “In training camp, the goal is to get better every day, and in that, it’s the mindset of trying to make the team every day, you know?”
But Metchie wasn’t the only one with peaks and valleys. Though it might not have been in the same realm of consequence, Young’s struggles were real. The former No. 1 overall pick struggled early in his career — and two games into his second season (and his first with Canales), he was benched.
Metchie remembers it.
And remembers how it would end up.
“Of course I knew it was all going to work out,” Metchie said. “Especially because of the person he is. And how good he is as a football player, and how good he can be.”
He added: “What’s the saying? Ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys? It’s just like that. The valleys build you to who you need to be at the peaks. So I never had a concern about who the person is, his character, and what he falls back on in hard times, or pressure situations. I also was never concerned about his game. I don’t think there are many quarterbacks that are nicer than him, in my opinion.”
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In other words, Metchie knew.
He saw something even if Young maybe didn’t, or couldn’t.
Just like on the football field.
