Getty Image / Grant Halverson
The Carolina Panthers bet the franchise on Bryce Young, making a huge trade with the Chicago Bears for the rights to take the Alabama quarterback first-overall in the 2023 NFL Draft. Young was supposed to be the face of the franchise for a long time.
But, just two games into his second season, they’ve essentially given up on Bryce Young. After two poor starts to begin the season, he’s been benched by Head Coach Dave Canales for Andy Dalton.
Simply put, Young has been terrible so far. On the year, he’s 31-56 for 245 yards, no touchdowns, and three picks. 56 attempts for 245 yards is about as inefficient as you can be in the modern NFL passing game. Sunday’s blowout loss to the Chargers was especially terrible. Young completed 18 of 26 passes, which is respectable. But, those 26 attempts only went for 84 yards. That is the most completions in NFL history without gaining 100 yards.
Somehow, Bryce Young actually looks worse than the stats suggest. His small stature was always going to be a limiting factor as a pocket passer, even if he did pretty well looking over a big offensive line at Alabama. But, in college, had a pretty good feel in the pocket and could move effectively to find throwing lanes. He’s showing none of that right now. Last year, Young was constantly under pressure, but that hasn’t been the case this year, especially in the loss to the Chargers. But, he’s seeing ghosts, running backward and out of the pocket when he doesn’t need to. That’s putting him in terrible positions to push the ball downfield, something he’s been the worst in the league at this year.
The Panthers hired a quarterback guru in Dave Canales, a coach who helped Baker Mayfield get his career back on track last year, to be their head coach in the hopes that Bryce would show improvement. But, that hasn’t happened, and they decided to pull the plug less than 24 hours after Dave Canales assured the media that Bryce Young was their quarterback.
Young was playing poorly. But, it’s still shocking for a team to give up on a number-one pick after just 18 starts. Consider that they gave up DJ Moore, a 2023 first-rounder (Darnell Wright), a 2024 first-rounder (Caleb Williams), a 2023 2nd-rounder (Tyrique Stevenson), and a 2025 2nd-rounder to the Bears for the first-overall pick in 2023, it could go down as the worst trade in NFL history.
But, this is a franchise that is completely lost. They were the league’s worst team in the league last year and appear to be that this year. Boos rained down yesterday at Bank of America Stadium. Fans needed to see a change and they got one ahead of their Week 3 game in Las Vegas.