Bryce Young is not the biggest NFL Draft bust ever, no matter what Stephen A. Smith says

The Carolina Panthers benched Bryce Young on Monday, perhaps signaling the unceremonious end to his tenure in Charlotte, just 17-months after the franchise made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. As expected, the hot take machine has been working overtime, and no media personality is better at using that to his advantage than ESPN's Stephen A. Smith.

On Tuesday during First Take, Stephen A. Smith alluded to the fact that Young might be the biggest draft bust in NFL history, a statement it is simply too early to make at this point, even if he's probably far from the only person thinking it.

The biggest problem with Stephen A.'s assessment is that is is entirely subjective. If you ask Panthers fans, they would probably agree with him. If you asked Raiders fans, there's no chance they think anyone has ever been worse than JaMarcus Russell.

Young's performance has been bad. There's no way to sugarcoat it, and he deserves to shoulder some of the blame. But as I've wrote about in the last couple of days, a lot of the blame should fall on Dave Tepper and the Panthers as a franchise.

Some of the blame should fall on the league as a whole, as more than ever before there's pressure for young quarterbacks to play before they are ready. That's the social media age where patience doesn't exist and coaches and general managers who have hitched their wagon to a particular quarterback have to see if they are the guy right away because regime changes happen quicker than ever.

The Raiders understood that when they drafted Russell, who started his first game in Week 17 of his rookie year before taking over as the starter in year two. Young was thrown into an impossible situation, and dealt an unwinnable hand. Situations matter, especially for quarterbacks. C.J. Stroud is a better quarterback than Bryce Young - understand that I'm not arguing that - but what would the narrative be about Stroud if he was drafted by Carolina instead? Would he be struggling, too?

My best guess would be yes. You can point to recent examples of Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield both struggling in Carolina only to thrive in different situations. Darnold has looked great through two weeks in Minnesota, and Mayfield played so well last season in Tampa Bay that the Bucs rewarded him with a $100 million contract.

It's too early to tell if Young is a true draft bust or not. Mayfield was considered the same in Cleveland and has resurrected his career in Tampa. Calling Young the biggest draft bust of all time is absurd, considering the circumstances.

Russell made 9 starts in his third season and threw 3 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, completing 48% of his passes. Trey Lance, drafted No. 3 overall, made only four starts before the 49ers gave up on him.

If we go back a little further in time, there's former No. 2 pick Ryan Leaf, who threw 14 touchdowns to 36 interceptions over the course of three seasons in the league.

To quote Stephen A., JaMarcus Russell wasn't even that bad. And Bryce hasn't been either, and there's still time and opportunities to come for him to erase that moniker.