Bryce Young Gets Benched
I have 100% confidence that the Panthers new head coach Dave Canales got the job by selling himself on the ability to fix Bryce Young. His resume was that of a young smart offensive mind who was there when Geno Smith had his resurgence in Seattle, and then again last year when Baker Mayfield came into himself in Tampa. The Panthers had what looked like a bust in the making, a young QB who suffered a mess of a first season. I don’t know if Tepper approached Canales or Canales went for the job first, but there is no way in hell that Canales “fixing” Young wasn’t the main pitch that got him the gig.
We got two games in before he gave up.
The past two days have been an absolute whirlwind of discussion over who to blame, what is wrong, and what happens now. Safe to say everything is a mess. My last comic was literally about the hell the Panthers have found themselves in. But now that we have actual progress on the season we can delve a little deeper into the quagmire that is Bryce Young.
I was generally very confused why Young looks so bad, top bust of all time argument bad. He was fine in college. All the scouts loved him. He seemed really smart. Other QBs have made the shortness problem work for them. To have him bust out isn’t unheard of considering the situation, but this was more than busting. He looks like he doesn’t even belong in the sport. But the increased spotlight on the team and player over the past week has started to show some of why things have gone badly. Lets start with the player himself.
He’s too small. The real difference between him and Russ/Kyler isn’t height (although he is slightly shorter than both), it’s his meek frame. Look at him compared to Kyler or Russ. Both of those guys are undeniably athletes. They may be shorter, but they are thick and built. They have structure. Athleticism is part of their entire game, as they are known for running around and creating plays with their movement. Bryce Young looks like a high school sophomore. I’m 6’3 205 as of my most recent physical. I have full confidence that Russ and Kyler would knock me on my ass. I look at Bryce Young and I think I have a chance, despite my lack of training and athleticism. So what does that say about him against NFL players, people who can be bigger than me and trained to do much more with it? So far, I’m shocked he hasn’t been turned into paste. But he has been hit, and hit, and hit, and it will not let up because he runs into most of them himself. College features some big dudes but the NFL is nothing but big dudes. Well, 99.99 % big dudes. The .01% is Bryce.
Bryce doesn’t have the scrambling ability that allows Kyler and Russ to generate plays. His strength was his brain. But he has the same vision issues both Kyler and Russ have but can maneuver to mitigate. Bryce throws a lot of passes off little jumps. His footwork is abysmal and weird. His vision appears to be a problem in the way we used to predict Kyler and Russ (and before them, Drew Brees) would have issues but didn’t. But Young’s brain seems to have been completely shattered. Unlike Alabama, which operates as a well-oiled machine, he was stuck on a rotten bottom-feeder franchise with weak weapons and poor protection (last year, at least). He has no internal clock. He has no ability to read a defense. If his brain was his strong suit, it might be his weakest element now. So he’s tiny, unathletic, and now stupid. And he looks like it on the field.
But I’ve long been a proponent of the idea that anyone can succeed in the NFL given the right circumstances, it is just that for some players the circumstances have to be very precise and usually not realistically achievable. It’s easier to tailor a team around a guy’s skillset in College with direct recruitment and weaker competition when gimmicks become more effective. The NFL doesn’t allow for that degree of flexibility. Regardless of whether Bryce Young can succeed, he certainly was not put in a position to do so.
The Panthers mess last year was pretty bad. Terrible roster management put the team into a pit. His offensive line was atrocious and is probably the #1 outside force for how broken he looks now. He didn’t have reliable weapons to ease the pain. His coaching staff was full of old-fashioned guys. He looked pretty rotten but his situation was clearly the kind of spot most QBs would suffer in. Although, it must be noted, Andy Dalton performed adequately when called upon due to injury in Seattle. But hey, Dalton is an experienced pro and Bryce was in his first year. A new coach could fix this, right? Right?
I’m not sure Canales is a good coach yet. He had all offseason to prepare Young. The offensive line appears to be fixed. Young looks worse than ever. As some have pointed out, Young only played for a single series in one preseason game. Why? This kid needs confidence and practice in a new system and you basically keep him sidelined? Put him out there! After two games of the worst quarterbacking you’ll ever see he’s benched. So what now?
Young probably should have sat behind Dalton to begin with but Tepper probably wanted his shiny new toy to be played with. Now there’s zero reason to play with it, as it tarnished and rusted after being left out in a thunderstorm. Will sitting this time work? Is this being done for Young’s sake or is Canales already keenly aware that his job is in danger if he keeps Young out there and the locker room rebels on him? Do you think Young sees another snap of Panthers football this season(injury to Dalton excluded)? I don’t. I think he’s too damaged. The Panthers would probably be right to trade him for whatever 7th rounder they can get for him. A lot of people have pointed to Miami as one of the few spots that might work.
Is Bryce the worst first-overall pick ever? Maybe. Guys like Jamarcus Russell or Ryan Leaf still had talent but were headcases. On top of that, neither of them were the subject of a massive trade-up pick by the Raiders or Chargers respectively. The Panthers gave up a haul so extreme the Bears got to mulligan their own draft bust for another QB to ruin instead. Bryce doesn’t seem like a troubled guy like Jamarcus or Leaf, but he plays just as badly as both of them. I really do wonder where his career goes now. I guess we will see.
Also benching him gives the Giants a better chance at the #1 pick so hell yeah Andy lets go baby red rifle that shit up to 5 wins!
Bo Jackson is the worst #1 NFL draft pick ever.
Didn’t play a single down in Tampa. At least Bryce & Jamarcus got a few wins.
How on earth did the Buccaneers manage to screw up drafting Bo Jackson?
Culverhouse getting the guy DQ’d from playing baseball for his senior season can do that. It gets worse when you learn the Bucs were offered a king’s ransom for that pick only for Culverhouse to turn it down.
Owner of the Bucs tricked him into loosing his college eligibility. Once Bo found that out literally told them he’d never play for them and they still drafted him.
The owner of the Bucs fucker up Bo’s college baseball eligibility and Bo refused to play for the Bucs after that.
lol Bust Young
Texans ruined rookie QBs, Stroud and He-who-must-not-be-massaged put up amazing numbers their rookie years. When teams should be doing the sit for a year, Mahomes, or more, Love.
Dalton is too talented to be a tank commander. He’ll play well enough that Panthers won’t have a chance to draft a good QB
That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the news….the Panthers are gonna Panthers their way out of the top 3 picks probably just so they can come out even worse.
Don’t the Bears still have the Panthers first round pick for this year?
They do not, they only got their pick the year of the trade and the following one (last year’s). They have our 2nd rounder this year, but not the 1st.
Oof. At least this QB class is supposed to be weak
Panthers defense isn’t pretty bad so even if Andy Dalton looks like a decent QB, I think our ceiling is 5 wins and that still should put us in a good enough spot to draft a QB.
As a panthers fan I am happy that young has been benched he has proven that he is a bad quarterback and Andy Dalton (for once) is the better option.
I do not believe he gave up on young. He said young was the starter. I believe tepper intervened and told him “I don’t care about developing him, win me games or you’re fired” which has been his problem the entire time.
Tepper invested a lot into Bryce. It makes no sense for him to tell Canales, who he brought in with the hope that he could fix Bryce, to give up on him. If anything Tepper has a vested interest in giving Bryce more time.
It seems that Canales pretty quickly surmised that Bryce was a lost cause, and his poor play was starting to affect the locker room, so he made that decision, and Tepper gave it his blessing.
Think about what you said there……..Tepper is known as being pretty darn impatient. This is totally a Tepper move. If Canales was indeed brought in to fix Young, he would have advocated to do the job he was brought in to do. Giving up on Young would basically be telling Tepper “yeah he sucks and i can’t do the one job you hired me to do”. That in itself would be like asking to be fired, winning games or not.
Yeah I am with This Guy. Normally I would agree with you, but tepper has a pretty notable track record of doing this. He signed bridgewater to a 3 year deal, who was perfectly fine, jettisoned him after one year in favor of darnold. Gave up on darnold for bad newton. Gave up on newton for mayfield. Gave up on rhule for reich, gave up on reich for canales. It’s a cycle that meshes with his “I only know how to win” mentality typical of billionaires who make their living in finances. He wants to win above all else, right now, and doesn’t care whether the roster is in a state to do so. He thinks he can just push the right buttons and get it to work.
Last year, the O-line was a problem and he honestly should’ve sat to start that year, but the damage is done. This year, the o-line is not as bad of a problem, he’s not getting sacked or pressured nearly as much, benching him just smells like a panic move to me, like all of tepper’s other moves.
Didn’t the Chargers trade up to draft Leaf?
Leaf went 2nd overall. The Colts passed on him and drafted Peyton because Leaf didn’t like the city of Indianapolis, which might be the biggest bullet dodged of all time.
You make the same joke every time and I laugh every time
“…and then again last year when Baker Mayfield came into himself in Tampa.”
Damn, that must have taken some flexibility.
Something that went under the radar during the offseason is that Bryce actually took a break from football for most of it. It almost seemed like he thought things would fix themselves. I don’t think he has a poor work ethic but it does seem that he doesn’t prioritize football which is a trait you do not want in your franchise QB, especially one who the Panthers invested that much into.
I think that can also explain why Canales was hesitant to give him more reps in preseason and was comfortable telling Tepper that Bryce Young wasn’t the answer.