The Carolina Panthers' goal to make Bryce Young their franchise quarterback has officially come to a crashing halt.
When new Panthers head coach Dave Canales announced on Monday that ne was benching Young in favor of veteran Andy Dalton, nobody really criticized the move beyond the acknowledgement that the Panthers have done a rotten job of creating the right environment around him. But nobody who has watched Young in his second NFL season could really have an issue with the benching.
Through the first two weeks of the season, Young ranks dead last among qualifying quarterbacks in passer rating (44.1) and Passing EPA (-40.2). He's completed 31 of 56 passes for 245 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, no touchdowns, and three interceptions. In a larger sense, and into his second NFL season, Young does not seem ready for the rigors of the NFL.
That's a damning indictment for the first overall pick in the 2023 draft — a pick that the Panthers got from the Chicago Bears for Carolina's 2023 ninth-overall pick, their 2023 second-round pick (61st overall), their 2024 first-round pick (which turned out to be the first overall pick), a 2025 second-round pick, and elite receiver D.J. Moore.
Even if Young had worked out to the extent that Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud did with the 2023 pick right after the one that procured Young, the assets released would have been extreme. But now that we know what Young has become at the NFL level, the Panthers are dealing with a sunk-cost situation that's impossible to resolve in a short period of time.
None of this matters in the grand scheme of things, though. Not what the Panthers gave up for the right to pick Young, not how much better Stroud has been, and not Young's NFL future, whatever it may be. What the Panthers are now dealing with is the specter of Young's future, and whether it should be with their franchise.
The Panthers, after all, hired Canales to be their new head coach before the 2024 season precisely because Canales had engineered career renaissances for Geno Smith in Seattle, and for Baker Mayfield in Tampa.
That Canales has already given up on Young in favor of Andy Dalton after just two games says a great deal.
"Yeah, I certainly take it personally," Canales said Monday. "This position that I'm in, this opportunity that I get, is about building a culture, is about building a football team that plays with a certain play style, and that's my main focus, and above all, is to help the Panthers win. That's what this decision was about.
"I just owe it to all of the guys, the coaches, the staff, the players, everybody involved to be really critical about what we put on film, about what I'm seeing and to make sure that I'm constantly making the best decision for the team every week. It happens to be the quarterback position and so it's loaded that way, but it's every position and it's all the guys and I was able to stand in front of the team and challenge all the guys that we all have to step up our passion for what we're doing, to play with the play style that we're looking for."
Canales was as definitive as he could be, which leads one to believe that he's seen enough of Young to know that this just isn't going to work. And if that's the case, it's time to trade Young out of the building, and into another environment where he may be able to thrive without the pressure of being a franchise-defining starting quarterback who cost this much draft and personnel capital.
Because quarterbacks who are able to pay the cost to be the boss, so to speak, have an intrinsic understanding of not only the playbook, and not only what is required to beat NFL defenses, but also what it means to take a franchise on his shoulders and move things forward.
Former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky, who has studied Young since his Alabama days, agrees that a trade out of Carolina is the right move. Moreover, Orlovsky believes that Young needs to be rebuilt completely as a player.
"Fix him from the ground up," Orlovsky told me when I asked what he would do if he was Young's next quarterback coach. "He has zero base right now and is playing in a drift/feel state rather than a consistency and conviction state. It’s like sitting 0-2 as a baseball hitter versus a pitcher with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and a 88-mile-per-hour hook. [It's a] total guess for him."
Which is exactly what the tape shows. Whatever he was able to accomplish at Alabama, Young is clearly a one-read quarterback with limited to zero feel in the pocket, and just as little ability to process what the defense is doing.
Young's only real hope at this point in his career is to have an obvious first read open, and nothing to cloud his judgment. That doesn't really work at the NFL level, but that's what we're left with.
Even in his college days, Young needed an "elastic" pocket to make it work, which is to say that his in-pocket movement has never been great. And with NFL route concepts, against NFL defenses, that will eventually get you in a lot of trouble. If you can't re-set in the pocket, you are going to leave the pocket before you should, which really limits your options as a pure passer.
Young is also to the point where a lot of unprepared and NFL-"ruined" quarterbacks get — they become late processors and late throwers, and they'll throw their receivers closed when the whole point is to use anticipation to throw one's receivers open.
Young needs a coach who will redefine everything for him as that coach is able to build him back up, as Orlovsky said. There are recent examples of this happening under the right circumstances.
Chris Brown of Smart Football fame recently detailed how Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was able to take former Tennessee Titans quarterback Malik Willis, who was traded to Green Bay on August 27, and was able to sub in for injured starter Jordan Love with limited reps in a 16-10 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Willis wasn't dominant by any means, completing 12 of 14 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown, but that wasn't the point. The point was that LaFleur and his staff were able to give Willis the limited menu he could handle, and it worked just fine.
And that's why Young should not only be with another team, but why he should also be a backup to start while that new team analyses and deduces what he can bring to the table, what's been ruined and must be recovered, and what simply isn't there yet.
Saving Bryce Young as an NFL quarterback may be out of the question. But it's even less likely as a starter with his current team. It's obvious that Young's future lies in the balance, and the best thing for all involved is for the Panthers to eat the sunk cost, cut bait, and progress to whatever the next step may be.
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