Young bites the dust, at least for now. How dreadful was Sunday’s Week 2’s performance by the Carolina Panthers offense? Bad enough for former No. 1 draft pick Bryce Young to get the quick hook in favor of Andy Dalton just two starts into his sophomore campaign, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported on Monday afternoon.
Young has been thrown to the wolves for basically his entire career, and given little chance to succeed after a disastrous rookie year under center in 2023. The Panthers were able to scrounge up just 13 points in their first two games under new coach Dave Canales, who was the offensive coordinator for Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And if he is not careful, he could find himself without a job.
Sunday was as pedestrian as it gets, and that is being kind, with Young facing the least pressure of any starting quarterback in the NFL and still managing to throw for 84 yards 26 pass attempts in yet another embarrassing defeat for Carolina.
Dalton, a former second-round pick in the 2011 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, will take over the reins, beginning in Week 3 when Carolina travels to ‘Sin City’ to take on the Las Vegas Raiders.
The football community will know more when Canales speaks this week, but it is entirely possible the Panthers simply decided Young needed a break from being on the field for an underwhelming Carolina team as the anchor of a dysfunctional Panthers offense.
Young, the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Alabama, has not taken a marginal step forward this year for the Panthers, he has in fact gotten worse. It is like all of his confidence has been stripped away.
The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner failed to pick up a third-down blitz from the Chargers on the Panthers’ second drive of the game, bounced out of the pocket and held the ball for more than three seconds until he was unnecessarily sacked by the sideline. He threw an unacceptable interception into double coverage. And on a third-and-2 he missed tight end Adam Thielen by a wide margin that was pretty close to equaling the distance on the throw itself.
That is just a summary of some notable instances, but the bottom line to all of this is there is no real way around it: Young looks like a shell of himself right now.
The Panthers are 0-2 and in the basement of their division and have scored a single offensive touchdown so far this season, a three-yard scramble by Young in Week 1 to slice the Saints lead down to 37-10 in an ugly blowout.
Carolina did not show up or put up a fight against the Chargers from start to finish.
The Panthers brass of Canales, GM Dan Morgan and EVP Brandt Tillis got together and made the decision to bench Young, according to ESPN.
How much involvement did high-strung owner David Tepper had/has in this decision will certainly be a hot topic, although it is possible Canales simply is worried about his own job security, given the level of play by the offense and Tepper’s history for firing head coaches midway through the season, he is 3 for 3 so far in his tenure as owner of the Panthers, with Frank Reich being his latest victim midway through his first season last year.
Dalton’s insertion into the starting lineup will at least give the critics an idea of whether or not this offense is functional at all, or whether it is simply a Bryce Young issue for Carolina. The 36-year-old Dalton is 83-78-2 in 163 starts over a 14-year NFL career. He is not being elevated to QB1 to torch defenses on a weekly basis, but he will probably have more control over the offense and almost certainly possess a better level of comfort inside the pocket.
At the very least, this gives Young an opportunity to step back, learn from a veteran with playoff experience, take a breath and regroup and work on the fundamental side of being an NFL quarterback without spending every waking minute under siege from opposing defenses and the Panthers frustrated fanbase.
Following the road trip to Las Vegas, the schedule does not lighten up by any means. The Panthers have the Bengals, the organization who drafted Dalton over a decade ago, the Bears, who traded with the Panthers in the Young deal, the Falcons, Commanders and Broncos. There are several winnable games on the slate for a mildly functional NFL club.
It is Dalton’s job and responsibility to prove whether or not the Panthers can approach that level of baseline mediocrity over the next few weeks.
