The Top 5 best landing spots for Bryce Young

The Carolina Panthers benched second-year quarterback Bryce Young on Monday, a move that is likely to mark an unceremonious end to a tumultuous 17-months in Charlotte for the former Alabama Football star.

Young was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft after a Heisman Trophy winning career at Alabama. His diminutive stature outweighed by his football acumen and arm talent. The results across 18-starts in the NFL has been an unmitigated disaster, and has some pundits already questioning whether he is the biggest NFL Draft bust of all time.

The immediate aftermath of his benching brought on scorn and ridicule, but in the last 24-hours, we've seen more analysts placing the blame where it belongs: with the Panthers organization.

Young is likely to finish the season on the bench in Carolina, but he is likely to be moved this offseason as the Panthers move on and try to recoup any amount of value they can before taking another swing at a QB in the 2025 NFL Draft.

This benching is not the end for Young. He's still just 23-years-old, younger than Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., and Bo Nix, all of whom were just selected within the first 12-picks of the 2024 draft.

Someone will take a chance on the raw talent and youth, and we'll see him back on the NFL field again one day, hopefully surrounded by the talent and structure he needs to find success.

Let's take a look at the five best teams for Bryce Young to land on to give himself the best opportunity of becoming the player most thought he could be.

5. Miami Dolphins

The biggest thing lacking for Bryce Young right now is confidence. His confidence has been shattered by a Panthers organization that threw him to the wolves before he was ready and hung sausage around his neck in the form of a mediocre at best offensive line and perhaps the worst group of skill-position talent in the entire NFL.

Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel exudes confidence, and would be able to instill it back into Young. He did it once already with another former Alabama QB in Tua Tagovailoa, who after an up-and-down beginning to his career with a head coach who tanked his confidence, began flourishing immediately under McDaniel and led the league in passing yards a season ago.

After his latest scary concussion on Thursday night against the Bills, Tua's career is very much in doubt. His injury issues make it all the more reason for the Dolphins to invest in a quality backup QB, someone who could be ready in a moment's notice if he gets hurt again.

In a perfect world, Tua comes back fully healthy and Bryce is able to sit back and learn in South Beach from a consummate professional, biding his time for a couple of years and signs on or gets traded to a new team where he can get his second chance as a starter.

4. New Orleans Saints

The Saints could get out of Derek Carr's contract after this season, and they might already have their QB of the future in South Carolina's Spencer Rattler, who flashed his potential in the preseason. But the Saints are always looking for creative ways to improve their roster.

Carr is 33, and even with as well as he's played so far in 2024, is undoubtedly on the back-nine of his NFL career. He's been around the block as a veteran QB and would be a great guy for Bryce to learn under for a year or two before he got his shot at potentially leading the Saints.

Young receivers Chris Olave an Rashid Shaheed are so much better than anyone Bryce has played with in the pros that they might as well be playing a different sport.

3. Seattle Seahawks

Sitting and learning behind Geno Smith, a guy who knows all about walking into a bad situation as a young quarterback and bouncing around before finding a home, would be an ideal fit for Bryce Young.

Smith was originally drafted by the New York Jets and played with the Giants and Chargers before finding a home in Seattle and playing well enough to earn a 3-year, $75 million contract.

This move would make sense for Seattle, too, as Smith is 33-years-old and has one more non-guaranteed year on his contract running through 2025. Young could sit behind Smith for all of 2025 and potentially be ready to take over for him in 2026.

2. Detroit Lions

The Lions just signed Jared Goff to a big contract extension, but they can get out of the contract after the 2027 season. As good as Goff has been statistically, the Lions are elite level QB play from probably being the best team in the NFL. Smart drafting has set Detroit up for success now and in the future, and top-to-bottom they have one of the best rosters in the league.

But is Goff good enough to lead the Lions to a Super Bowl? Or are they destined to be a fringe-playoff team for the next five years that isn't quite good enough to make it all the way? Chances are Bryce Young won't ever be as good as Jared Goff, but for the low asking price Carolina is likely to command, he could be a worthwhile gamble.

Young needs a confidence boost, and no coach operates with more confidence than Dan Campbell. It would also reuinite Bryce with a couple of college teammates he already has a rapport with in Jameson Williams and Jahmyr Gibbs.

1. Los Angeles Rams

Matthew Stafford is 36-years-old and is constantly dealing with nagging injuries. Nagging injuries that will only keep nagging more and more as he gets older. The Rams could also get out of Stafford's contract after the 2025 season, and he becomes an unrestricted free-agent following the 2026 season.

Sean McVay is one of the brightest minds in football, and if anyone can pull the best out of Bryce it's probably him. McVay and the Rams already saved Baker Mayfield's career as it looked like the former No. 1 pick was on his way out of the league when he was waived by the Panthers in 2022. The Rams claimed him on waivers and gave him a chance with Stafford injured.

He played well enough to get a one-year deal with Tampa Bay for 2023, where he then put together the best season of his NFL career and earned a $100 million contract from the Bucs.

Stafford is the perfect veteran to nurture Bryce and ultimately hand the reigns to him once his time as a starter in this league is over.