Bryce Young's career might be saved thanks to Panthers benching

On Monday, the Carolina Panthers announced that they were benching former Alabama QB Bryce Young, and turning the offense over to veteran signal-caller Andy Dalton. The move has expectedly been met with mockery and criticism of the former Heisman Trophy winner as it is a rare case for a team to bench the guy they spent the No. 1 overall pick just two games into his second season.

But those two games were disastrous, with Bryce posting an 8.9 QBR and the Panthers being outscored 73-13 in losses to the Saints and Chargers. It's a move, that while unexpected, probably had to be made to save Bryce from the misery of a supporting cast that would further tank his confidence for good as the season played out.

I wrote yesterday that the blame for the failure of Bryce should be squarely on the shoulders of the Panthers organization. It's been a year and a half since Carolina selected Bryce with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and this is the first sensible move they've made.

The reality is that he probably shouldn't have played at all as a rookie last season. It's not easy to make the decision to sit the No. 1 pick, but with the dumpster-fire surrounding him it was the only choice that could have prevented what's transpired over the course of 18-starts.

I know Bryce Young is a talented quarterback. I saw him make too many unbelivable plays in Tuscaloosa to buy into the notion that he's devoid of any real skill. But I also saw how much joy he played football with in college, and how much that has been zapped from him in Charlotte.

You can see it all over his face. The joy is gone. The last remaining shred of confidence was beaten from him over the course of the first two weeks of the season.

The Panthers benching him should be viewed as a positive, though I'm sure he's spent the day overwhelmed with the sense of failure of not delivering on high expectations. But no matter how hard he worked, things were never going to get better in Carolina. They proved this offseason to be disinterested in setting him up for success.

Bryce will have to endure the mockery. The snickers and the jeers are still to come. But this benching is a blessing, and likely signals the end of his time with the Panthers. I suspect Carolina will look to trade him this offseason and recoup any semblance of value they can. It will give Bryce a chance at a fresh start, and the best opportunity to resurrect his NFL career.

It doesn't happen every day, but he would be far from the first player labled as a bust to go on to have a good career. Perhaps the most famous example of that is Hall-of-Famer Steve Young, who began his career in Tampa Bay and struggled through two seasons where the Bucs lost 28-games and Young threw just 11 touchdowns to 21 interceptions. He was traded to San Francisco for pennies on the dollar, and bided his time behind Joe Montana before eventually taking over and leading the 49ers to three Super Bowls.

There's more recent examples, too, including current Seattle Seahawks QB Geno Smith, who struggled with the team who drafted him and then bounced around a bit before landing in the right situation in Seattle. He's made the Pro Bowl back-to-back seasons.

Sam Darnold is making the most of another chance in Minnesota, where he ranks fifth in the league in QBR through two weeks. Recently, first round picks in 2021, Trey Lance and Bryce's former Tide teammate Mac Jones, were traded after the team that drafted them gave up on their development. Lance is Dak Prescott's backup in Dallas while Mac is sitting behind Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville. It remains to be seen what they will do when the opportunity comes, but it will almost certainly come.

The fact remains that Bryce is just 23-years-old. He's younger than Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., and Bo Nix, all of whom were just drafted in the Top-12 in 2024. He's only four months older than No. 1 pick Caleb Williams. He will have another chance in this league.

This benching is not a death-sentence for Bryce Young's NFL career. On the contrary, it might be the thing that ultimately saves it.