With only three and a half minutes left in the second quarter of their home opener, the Carolina Panthers trailed the Los Angeles Chargers 13-0. Coming off a 47-10 opening day loss, Carolina had opened up their second game with four straight punts. In need of points and nearing midfield, Bryce Young dropped back to throw out of shotgun, fired over the middle... and was subsequently intercepted.
It looked like the exact same play, with the exact same result, as Young's first pass of the season against the New Orleans Saints. It was a poorly schemed play. Two receivers (Diontae Johnson and Adam Thielen) ended up next to each other in the middle of the field where their crossing routes met. It was also a poorly timed throw. Young panicked, as his internal clock ticked too long for his own comfort. He abandoned his fundamentals and got rid of the ball far too early in the play.
The play was not the only reason for Carolina's 17th loss in their last 19 games, but instead was something more than that. It was a microcosm of what has quickly become the norm for a flailing football team: failure on every level.
It can be easy to put the blame squarely on Bryce Young's shoulders. After all, the second-year signal caller has yet to show any semblance of an NFL quarterback. The cause of this mess, however, can be attributed to a number of different people, in what one could call the worst organization in all of sports.
It Starts at the Top
When David Tepper purchased the Carolina Panthers in 2018 - for a then-NFL record $2.2 BILLION - he stated "mediocrity" would not be accepted or tolerated.
In a way, he has at least accomplished this. The Panthers have not reached mediocrity in his time as owner. As it stands, mediocrity would be an incredible improvement over what this Carolina fanbase has endured for the last six years.
Carolina has posted an NFL-worst record of 31-70 in that timespan. Tepper has overseen the team post a winning percentage of barely over 30% (.307 specifically) in his blinded pursuit of relevance. In what can now be considered the darkest era of Panthers football, Tepper's impatience and inability to get out of his own way has left Carolina in a mess.
That mess is not just on the field, either. According to overthecap.com , Carolina currently has the second-least amount of cap space in the NFL with only $3.3 million - with less than $100k more than the last-place Los Angeles Rams. They also boast nearly $50 million in dead cap space - money going to players that are fortunate enough to be far away from this dumpster fire. They are among the top ten teams in the league in terms of total dead money, as well.
Tepper's impatience has forced the team to see seven different head coaches (including interims) since his purchase. Ron Rivera was sent packing for Matt Rhule, who was fired for Frank Reich, who was let go for present-day coach Dave Canales. He is also on his third general manager, canning Marty Hurney for Scott Fitterer, then cutting ties with Fitterer for the current GM, Dan Morgan.
In that same time frame, ten different quarterbacks have started at least one game for the Panthers. After bidding adieu to franchise stalwart Cam Newton, Carolina signed Teddy Bridgewater to a three-year deal worth $63 million - then traded him for a sixth-round pick after one season. They then traded three picks, including one in the second round, for Sam Darnold. They picked up his fifth-year option before he played a single down for the team. Like Bridgewater, he lasted one season before they grew impatient and traded a fifth-round pick for Baker Mayfield. Mayfield was subsequently cut by the team after less than one season as they reversed course back to Darnold. Sprinkled in between these QBs were Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke, Will Grier, PJ Walker, and Cam Newton once again. All of these moves finally led to the big trade for the number one pick and Bryce Young. (Andy Dalton was the 10th starting QB in that timeframe, starting against the Seattle Seahawks in one game last season.)
Impatience is a killer. David Tepper is living proof of that. In his arrogance, in his desperation to prove everyone wrong, Tepper has allowed his own incompetencies to destroy this franchise. He wanted consistency. Congrats to him - Carolina is a consistent loser.
Poor Coaching and Poor Results
For years, Carolina has been plagued with poor coaching. Matt Rhule was a college head coach who brought a high school-level approach to the NFL. When the team made a mistake in training camp, he had them running laps. When something went wrong, he sought to point the finger at others, taking zero accountability. The sweating, bumbling mess that was Matt Rhule was finally relieved of his duties in 2022 and immediately returned to the college game.
Frank Reich was a coach past his prime. With an old-school mindset that refused to adapt to the modern-day game of football, the NFL had passed him by years prior to his return to Carolina (he was the first QB in team history before he became their eventual coach). Reich infamously wanted a quarterback not named Bryce Young in the 2023 draft - rumors swirled around whether it was C.J. Stroud or Anthony Richardson. Reich did not get to pick his QB, however, and was given Young. He was tasked with turning Young into the franchise savior. That did not happen, and his once-praised assembly of big-name coaches slowly turned on him over the course of the season. He was not given the same grace as his predecessor, instead being fired eleven games into his Carolina tenure. Reich retired shortly afterwards.
The Panthers are now two games into the Dave Canales era. The new coach has failed to live up to his promise to "stick to running the football" and has yet to scheme up anything worthwhile for rookie WR Xavier Leggette. His defense is porous at best and has allowed nearly 400 rushing yards (!!!) in those two games. He was hired to fix Young, who has gone from looking unsteady last season to completely lost now. With back-to-back pitiful losses to begin his time in Charlotte, how long will it be until Tepper once again loses patience and starts over?
Bryce Young May Be the Biggest Draft Bust... Ever
Young's biggest asset coming into the NFL was his brain. Draft analysts praised his pre-snap ability to read defenses and make on-the-fly adjustments at the line of scrimmage. What he lacked in size and arm strength, he made up for with his ability to avoid pressure and fire accurate passes on the run.
Young now looks as though he has no business being on a football field. On every drop back, he stays on his tiptoes, at times almost hopping as he throws the ball. He fails to go beyond his first read and has zero awareness to avoid pressure. He has instead fallen back to relying on a poorly tuned internal clock. The panicky QB runs out of clean pockets and is defenseless against incoming pass rushers, regardless of whether or not he's in the pocket.
Given what Carolina gave up for the number one pick to select him, one can argue that Bryce Young is well on his way to becoming an all-time bust. Perhaps the biggest of all time.
It may not be fair to declare a player a bust less than 20 games into their NFL career. Most players, especially QBs, are given at least two full seasons to show if they have "the goods" or not. There is not one thing that Young has shown thus far in his career that gives any hope of beating these bust allegations. His pre-snap reads and adjustments, awareness, arm strength, accuracy, fundamentals, and ability to lead all leave much to be desired. After all that, what else is left?
If the 2023 Carolina Panthers were a mess, what can one call this 2024 squad? There are a number of different adjectives one can use to describe them, but one in particular feels the most accurate:
Hopeless.
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