Breaking: Bryce Young came into the game and wasn’t terrible. Granted, the Carolina Panthers had already packed plenty of terrible into their 36-10 loss in Chicago without him.
Young entered to mop up for Andy Dalton at the end of the game. It was his first time seeing any playing time in three weeks. He got nine snaps in his two minutes, 27 seconds out there, and he completed four of seven passes for 58 yards, which may not seem like much. The bar he had set for himself was extraordinarily low, however.
His quarterback rating for the brief appearance was 84.2. That was his third-highest rating in Young’s last 13 games, dating back to before last Halloween. His 8.29 average yards per pass attempt was the second-best game of his career.
“He did a fantastic job, playing with energy, extending plays, finding some completions downfield,” said coach Dave Canales. “That was fantastic.”
So, then, the tough love Canales and the Panthers are showing Young, benching him after two games, may be working? This was all just a teaching technique for the second-year player, and we might see him leading the huddle again at some point in the not too distant future?
“No,” said Canales. “Andy is our starter.”
But, on a day Dalton struggled, perhaps the team might consider a change?
“Andy will be our quarterback next week,” Canales emphasized.
Much like when he announced the decision to bench Young, Canales didn’t say anything that could be construed as supportive or encouraging on Young’s behalf. From the day Dalton was installed as the starter, Canales has acted like it was a permanent move.
So, then, why bring Young in at the end of the Bears loss?
“Just saw it as an opportunity there,” Canales said. “We had a couple of injuries on the offense line. It is a hard situation, but at that point with the different things happening on the offensive line it was something where I wanted to get Andy out of there.”
In other words, we didn’t want to risk our important guy.
Actually, the phrase “in other words” wasn’t really necessary, since Canales went on to use almost exactly those words.
“It really goes back to just some injuries that we had and really getting Andy out of there, protecting him in that situation, and then giving Bryce a chance to get out there and play football,” Canales said.
Young essentially played the role of Jack Plummer, who got the bulk of the playing time for Carolina in the preseason, in order to prevent Young from getting hurt. Plummer was then cut at the end of the summer, although he’s spent time on the team’s practice squad.
The writing seems to be on the wall—Young’s time in Carolina appears to be over, after just a year and change. His mop-up duty came in Chicago, whose blowout of the Panthers was led by several of the components of the blockbuster trade that earned Carolina the chance to draft him first overall.
The Panthers sent the Bears DJ Moore, who had 105 receiving yards and two touchdowns, and a first-round pick Chicago used on quarterback Caleb Williams, who, in his fifth career start, threw for 304 yards—a mark Young has hit just once in 19 games—and posted a passer rating of 126.2, higher than Young has ever recorded in a game for the Panthers.
In five games with the Bears, Williams has two 300-yard games, two passer ratings of 100-plus, and three wins. In his 19 games with the Panthers, Young has totaled one, two and two.
The comparison the Panthers should be making for Young isn’t Williams, though. It’s Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold. Five weeks into the 2024 seasons, those two Carolina castoffs have combined for eight wins, 2,275 yards and 22 touchdowns.
That’s not a dig at Young. Instead, it should serve as encouragement—an assurance that, no matter how bad someone looks with the Panthers, there is life after Carolina.
We’re now less than a month from the trade deadline. Immediately after benching Young, the Panthers were reportedly besieged with trade offers. At the time they said they had no plans to deal him.
As the deadline approaches, however, the Panthers may want to reconsider that decision. By some estimates, they could get a third-round pick for Young, which is far less than they traded to acquire him, and less than the second-rounder they reportedly would demand.
It would give a clean slate to team and player, however, and allow both of them to move on. It’s not a move either wants to make, but it also comes from a spot neither wants to be in.
So, perhaps, Young wasn’t merely mopping up at the tai lend of the Chicago game. Maybe it was a chance for the Panthers to showcase him to potential buyers.
