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Bill Barnwell, ESPN Staff Writer
The most telling evidence that it was time for the Bryce Young era to end in Carolina is the immediate acceptance that followed. Nobody seemed to mind. There were no fans putting up signs supporting the embattled quarterback on the way to the facility, as there were for Justin Fields in Chicago after last season. No obvious replacement had rendered Young irrelevant with his play, as happened when Brock Purdy overtook Trey Lance in San Francisco. Eighteen games into Young’s tenure, just two games into his second season, the Panthers benched the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft and everyone collectively shrugged and said, “That makes sense.”
By the numbers, it’s difficult to argue with the decision. Young isn’t getting better. He’s actually significantly worse than he was a year ago. As I wrote Monday, through the first two games, the Panthers have the second-worst expected points added (EPA) per play of any offense since 2007. Young’s 9.1 QBR ranks 504th out of the 506 passers to throw at least 50 passes through Week 2. The quarterback just behind him, ironically, is Andy Dalton, who posted a 7.4 QBR over his first two starts in 2017.
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The guy who is last on that list is Matthew Stafford, who had a 5.6 QBR in his first two NFL starts during the 2009 season, when the Lions went 2-14. I’m not suggesting Stafford’s turnaround is proof Young can do the same, but it seems natural to both reflect on how we got here and what comes next. How could Young have fallen out of favor so quickly? Has this happened before? And was anyone who went through this able to make his way back to relevance as an NFL quarterback?
Let’s take a look into what has happened. While it might feel obvious, it was only a year ago that Young was regarded as a potential franchise quarterback. There are lots of questions to answer here, and even more to come between now and the trade deadline on Nov. 5.
Jump to a section:
Has any QB like Young been benched so quickly?
Is he the worst first overall pick ever?
Is the Young move the worst recent trade?
Does he have any trade value?
Which teams make sense as a landing spot?
Is there any way Young could turn things around?
Is this a sign teams shouldn’t draft short QBs?
Will the Panthers be better with Andy Dalton?
Is Young really playing poorly enough to be benched two games into the season?
Put it this way: In just about any other situation, benching a quarterback with three guaranteed years left on his contract two starts into the season would be considered a panic move. I’m not sure the Panthers had much of a choice, however. Their offense wasn’t functional with Young under center. Nothing worked. And while argument could be made that he wasn’t getting much help, his struggles in obvious passing situations and inability to threaten teams downfield was putting a breathtakingly low floor and ceiling on the offense.
Had Young been struggling in 2024 the same way he had been in 2023, I would argue the Panthers should have given him more time. That just wasn’t the case. He has been much worse. His raw numbers are abysmal and even they are inflated by garbage time, where Carolina has spent most of the second half of its games. His lone touchdown drive through two games came when trailing by 34 points in the third quarter against the Saints in the opener.
