Just one day after the Carolina Panthers suffered an embarrassing 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, head coach David Canales announced that he benched starting quarterback and former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young. Young, who's had a woeful start to his career, lasted just 18 games before getting the hook.
NFL legend JJ Watt was beside himself, via his social media.
“WOW,” Watt said.
Young himself also shared Watt's shock, via NFL insider Jordan Schultz.
“Sources: #Panthers QB Bryce Young and those close to him were ‘very shocked' at the organization’s decision to bench him this morning. ‘It came out of nowhere,' one source said,” Schultz reported. “Safe to say no one anticipated the plug being pulled after just two games with a new coaching staff.”
Was Carolina too hasty with its decision, or was it a long time coming?
Bryce Young never had a chance with these Panthers
Young's Carolina tenure is the classic conundrum: was it the young quarterback's fault, or did the organization fail him?
The Panthers gave up a king's ransom of assets to land the Alabama alum, which placed an enormous amount of pressure on them to hit on the pick. To trade up for the 2023 No. 1 draft selection and land Young, they sent wideout DJ Moore, two 2023 first-rounders, a 2024 first, and a 2025 second to the Chicago Bears. While this is common practice for teams that are set on a big-time quarterback prospect, these were all valuable assets the organization could've used to rebuild the team.
With both Moore and Christian McCaffrey gone, Carolina had no upper-echelon weapons to help their young quarterback develop. On top of that, head coach Frank Reich got fired in the middle of his rookie season, and the Panthers' offensive line ranked near the bottom of the league, in a tier called “The Quarterback Killers,” via Player Profiler. These aren't optimal conditions for a rookie signal-caller to succeed.
Young's size provides another disadvantage, checking in at just 5-foot-10, 205 pounds. Shorter quarterbacks such as Russell Wilson and Drew Brees have succeeded, but when entering such a challenging environment, it's hard to deal with being the smallest player on the field on top of that.
Carolina is making the right decision for both parties at this time, as it doesn't help anybody to continue rolling Young out each week, only for him to become more demoralized. The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner will probably get a backup job somewhere else in the future, where he'll try to follow similar trajectories as players like Geno Smith and Sam Darnold.
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