Bryce Young’s benching after Week 2 was surprising to much of the National Football League. For the Carolina Panthers to turn their backs on their 2023 first-overall pick so early into his second season, things had to get really bad.
And they did get really bad. In their first two games of the season, the Panthers lost to the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers by a combined 60 points. Young threw three interceptions and no touchdowns during that period.
Coming off a 2-15 season in 2023, where head coach Frank Reich was fired in the middle of the season after losing 10 of 11 games, this was not an ideal situation. The player whom the Panthers faithful thought would be their savior looked like anything but that.
However, it is difficult to place all the blame on Young himself. Sure, he has physical factors working against him: Young is 5-foot-10 and 204 pounds, small and slight for an NFL quarterback. He has also had problems with his footwork throughout his whole career, which has shown itself more in the NFL than in college because of the talent that surrounded Young at Alabama and the weaker defenses in college. But a big part of his lack of success in his first two seasons is the Panthers’ organizational failures during his developmental stage and putting the wrong pieces around him.
In his college career at the University of Alabama, Young had one head coach: the legendary Nick Saban. It’s rare for college players to have this kind of consistency. Going from that environment to having your head coach fired halfway through the season in your rookie year hurts a young player’s development immensely. It’s difficult to blame Young for struggling when his coach was fired while he was still settling into the NFL, which is already such a jump from college. In the 2024 season, Young is already working with his third head coach, third quarterback coach and second offensive coordinator of his career. Having all these different people in his ear would make it difficult for most young quarterbacks to adjust to a new system.
The lack of assets around Young is another issue. Adam Thielen was his primary wide receiver last season, having led the team with 103 receptions and 1,014 yards, but he is now on the injured reserve with a hamstring injury. Their offensive line when Young was drafted was young and inexperienced.
All of these factors come together to put Young in a situation unideal for his progression into a quarterback fit for an NFL starting job. Even though it’s been rocky for him so far, it is far too early to call him the worst draft bust in recent memory. Plenty of guys with slow starts to their careers end up figuring it out down the line, whether that be with the team that drafted them or elsewhere. The most prominent example in recent NFL memory is Sam Darnold. Darnold did not find immediate success after being drafted third overall by the Jets in 2018 but is now doing extremely well with the Minnesota Vikings after their starter JJ McCarthy got hurt. A change of scenery might do the trick for Young, or he might just need more time to get himself off the ground.
It’s also important to recognize that this is a hard situation for the rest of the players on the Panthers. The choice to bench Young after Week 2 showed that the organization thought starting Andy Dalton gave them a better chance to win, and take the season in a winning direction overall. This might have been due to the thought that a new guy, especially one with as much experience as Dalton, could spark the offense. The other players on the team are, of course, concerned with winning and want whoever gives them the best chance to win to be out there. However, it is also important that Young is given time to develop and settle into head coach Dave Canales’ system, to perhaps establish himself as their long-term solution at quarterback. You cannot give up on the season two weeks in, but giving up on your guy that early leaves a bad taste in the mouth as well. Overall, the Panthers have to choose whether they are willing to put Young in a situation where he can succeed by giving him weapons and working out the kinks, or if they want to try and find the answer elsewhere.
