When you draft a quarterback first overall and trade many valuable assets to do so, it’s a suboptimal scenario to bench him after 18 starts and a 2-16 record. But here the Carolina Panthers are with Bryce Young. While the pint-sized, overwhelmed field general acknowledged he needed to improve and would leave it in the Lord’s hands to determine the future of his NFL career, we have some pretty compelling evidence via reporting that Young won’t be a Panther going forward.
Dianna Russini of The Athletic woke up this morning and chose violence with these bars about Young’s non-future with the Panthers, invoking the demise of a prominent celebrity couple to underscore just how D.E.D. dead this quarterback-franchise partnership is in Charlotte.
is Bryce Young the worst No. 1 overall in modern football history?
1 year & 2 games into his career his team is 100% out on him
got to be a record pic.twitter.com/EfhFIz9vM1
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 21, 2024
That portion of the report is very funny, but the juiciest part of it to me came from this passage regarding team owner David Tepper and the sudden about face head coach Dave Canales pulled in the span of fewer than 24 hours:
“First-year head coach David Canales told the world it was his call, but it was hard to find anyone in the league who believed that owner David Tepper had nothing to do with this decision.
History in Carolina tells us that while Tepper has tried to be more hands-off and allow the football people to make the football decisions, it’s never that easy. Even people on the Panthers believe ownership said, enough. ‘Too much changed from Sunday to Monday,’ one source added.”
Canales endorsed Young as the Panthers’ QB at the podium after their humiliating Week 2 loss to Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers. The next day, Canales announced Andy Dalton would be taking the reins with Young riding the pine. Hence why people in the building don’t buy for a second that the decision to bench Young came from the rookie head coach alone, or even other key decision-makers. Tepper’s history of meddling stretches back to when Carolina chose Young over CJ Stroud, who led the Houston Texans to a playoff win in his first season.
I don’t know if nobody has it better than Harbaugh’s Bolts, but I’m fairly certain nobody has it worse than Carolina fans and the poor souls on their roster who are counting on the Red Rifle to resurrect their already-floundering 2024 season. Well maybe Bryce Young has it worse than anyone. First of all, he and his girlfriend just broke up, so that’s not helping matters at all.
Bryce young got his girl taken from him and he got benched ah lawd bro is hurting rn😭 pic.twitter.com/UcxigzPpyv
— ☾ (@LongGonee_) September 19, 2024
As far as on-field stuff, whatever criticisms you have about the Panthers’ supporting cast or the coaching instability that’s sabotaged Young’s time in the NFL to date, bottom line is he didn’t get the job done. Like to the point where it looks like no amount of coaching can save him.
Asking by far the smallest QB in NFL history drafted in the first round to overcome years of dysfunction, bad ownership, and a medley of early coaching changes sounds like it has disaster written all over it. The Panthers probably couldn’t have fathomed a worse-case scenario than this. It’s like 10 times worse than what their worst fears could’ve been.
How about this line from Russini’s report: “Tepper and company told people and were convinced that they found their Drew Brees in Young.”
Maybe Tepper should chill on the QB evaluations. Be more of a hands-off owner. Couldn’t hurt!
As for Young’s NFL future, well, a fresh start with a new team is what he should be demanding to the front office. Get outta there. We’ve already seen Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield prove there are greener pastures elsewhere.
When you speak on Bryce Young just remember this….
Both are THRIVING. pic.twitter.com/emW8SVMEMJ— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) September 18, 2024
