Bryce Young deserves another chance as a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Top draft picks at this position tend to be rehabilitated, and the Carolina Panthers are currently treating Young as if he’s stepping up to bat after striking out.
He’s out. There’s a slight chance he’ll be deemed safe, but only if his current battery also fails.
Young, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft, cost the franchise a handful of draft picks and No. 1 receiver DJ Moore, who went to the Chicago Bears for the deal, sparking hope around a Carolina organization that’s seen more change than a city bus.
Nineteen games into the Young experiment, “inept” hasn’t been a strong enough word to describe the Panthers’ offense, which is why, with veteran Andy Dalton as the new starter, Young’s future is getting mixed reviews. “Promising” isn’t one of them.
At just 23 years old, there’s no telling when Young will get another opportunity, but he knows it will come.
This isn’t as simple as pulling him aside and giving him time to look at the game from a different perspective and evaluate whether he’s a quality quarterback, instead having him serve as a backup for a few games and then putting the former Alabama quarterback back in the starting lineup again.
Young took charge through the first two weeks of the 2024 season, and Carolina fans who remember what happened in 2023 could clearly see the complete failure of the offense under new head coach Dave Canales.
In that respect Young received a lot of help.
Dalton appears.
He knows a thing or two about producing in an NFL offense, and what Dalton did in Week 3 against the Las Vegas Raiders was the spark that sparked a dormant offense.
The Panthers have gone from brown bag jubilation to the explosive, efficient offense that Coach Canales promised with Young under center.
If Dalton stays healthy and performs well, it will further complicate things and confuse Carolina on how to address their overall issues with Young. Keep in mind that Dalton will turn 37 in October, about a week before the NFL trade deadline on Nov. 5.
Canales earned his first coaching victory with the Panthers last week, but it wasn’t his only coaching accolade. He earned it for developing stowaway reserve Geno Smith (Seahawks) and former No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield (Buccaneers) into Pro Bowl quarterbacks long after the rest of the league had decided their winning ways were over.
Dalton appeared to be on the same path with 300-yard, three-touch games, but this was in stark contrast to his incompetence in Carolina’s blowout losses to the Saints and Chargers. In those losses, the Panthers were outscored 73-13.
Just a few days after beating the Raiders, he made the most anticlimactic declaration imaginable: Dalton will be the starting quarterback when the Panthers play the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon.
I’m not kidding.
It was a reminder for Canales to take a breather after a win, and for Young, at least, a less stressful Sunday than the past few weeks. He didn’t get chased by defensive linemen or see punter Johnny Hekker pass him from the other direction on his way to the sideline.
The Panthers have reportedly received inquiries from other teams willing to engage in trade talks since Young’s demotion. So far, no deal has been made and there probably aren’t many teams interested in a trade.
At the end of the day, the Panthers really want the Young deal to work out. Owner David Tepper is a big investor, and it’s that investment that earned him billions to buy the Panthers.
And it is Tepper signed his draft selection About 18 months ago, the Houston Texans celebrated by selecting Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 pick in that same draft.
Young has been in the shadows this week, but for how long?
The only time he’ll be able to return to the field in a big moment is if Dalton is injured or one of those losses to Carolina comes up.
It’s a quiet day for Young, but the stakes for him will be higher than ever when the next opportunity arises.
