What are the Panthers doing?
On Monday, Sept. 16, the Carolina Panthers officially benched recent Quarterback Bryce Young. This is after the team traded four core members of their team in order to acquire Young just last season. This series of events compels me to ask: What are the Panthers doing?
The situation as a whole is baffling, to say the least. Since being traded, DJ Moore posted career highs in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns in his first season with the Chicago Bears. Offensive tackle Darnell Wright is now the Bears starting right tackle, defensive lineman Zacch Pickens is a solid bench piece, and quarterback Caleb Williams already has half the amount of wins that quarterback Bryce Young has in only three starts. All this has occurred while the Panthers still have a pending second-round pick, currently expected to be one of the first picks in the second round. Sure, Bryce Young has had a terrible start to his career thus far, but with all the hardship the Panthers endured to get him, why do they seem so eager to bench him?
The Panthers are not in contention to be a good team this season. They have signed and traded for pieces to help Bryce Young maximize his potential, and most of those players are also young and in the process of being developed into the best players they can be. All the signs point to sending Bryce Young out and letting him learn from early struggles. Instead, the Panthers will hand the ball to 37-year-old quarterback Andy Dalton. In fairness, Dalton did have to step in a few times last year for Bryce Young while he dealt with injury and played…alright. Dalton had a slightly lower completion percentage than Young, but he had a higher touchdown percentage, higher yards per completion, and did not throw any interceptions during his run last season. Though, these statistics still do not warrant benching the man for whom you gave up nearly all of your near-future assets.
Let’s pause to look at some of the all-time greats. Quarterback Peyton Manning went 3-13 as a starter in his rookie season and had more interceptions thrown than touchdowns. Manning would then win two Super Bowls, a Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP), and be a five-time regular season MVP. Quarterback Troy Aikman went 0-11 as a rookie starter and had double the amount of interceptions compared to touchdowns. Aikman would go on to win three Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP. Peyton’s younger brother and fellow quarterback Eli Manning went 1-6 as a rookie and threw more incomplete passes than he did complete passes. He would go on to win two Super Bowls and two Super Bowl MVPs. By no means is this saying that Bryce Young will become an all-time great, but how will you ever know if he is confined to the bench? Eighteen starts is nowhere near enough games to evaluate a quarterback, let alone evaluate him enough to decide to bench him.
It all circles back to the logistics. Rookie head coach David Canales did not leave a perfectly comfortable situation in Tampa Bay to lose every game in Carolina. Whether you like it or not, Andy Dalton gives the Carolina Panthers the best odds to win at this moment. Bryce Young has not thrown a touchdown in two games; he has a 9.1 quarterback rating (QBR), which ranks 31st out of 31 eligible quarterbacks, and Carolina has been outscored 73-13 in their first two games. The unforgivable statistics can go on forever. The gist is that the Carolina Panthers have been proven to be starting in a bad place when Bryce Young is under center.
The Panthers have backed themselves into a corner. They either keep Bryce Young under center and have a legitimate possibility to be the first team to go 0-17, or they hand the ball over to an aging Andy Dalton, who is certainly not a part of their future plans. The fact of the matter is that the Panthers chose the latter, and Andy Dalton will look to get the Panthers back on track after a huge win against the Las Vegas Raiders.