Bryce Young still isn’t ready, and Panthers’ QB plight remains a hot mess after Denver loss
I was curious. Maybe you were too. I wanted to know if Bryce Young would look any different after a forced five-week sabbatical. I wrote that Young should start the next game after the Panthers got pummeled by 33 points at Washington on Oct. 20 with Andy Dalton at the helm.
And Young indeed returned on Sunday — not at all because of that column, but because Andy Dalton coincidentally got in a minor car wreck on Tuesday and subsequently had to be benched for a week to let his sprained thumb recover.
But I’m not that curious anymore. Young is still not ready, and the Panthers got whipped Sunday by Denver, 28-14. As soon as Dalton’s thumb injury on his throwing hand is healed enough to play, it will sadly once again be true what head coach Dave Canales has said many times over the past five weeks: Dalton will again give the Panthers (1-7) their best chance to win, as slim as that may be.
And Young? Well, he’s going to have a pretty long NFL career somewhere. And it’s going to be as a backup.
All of that gives the Panthers their usual hot mess of a QB situation, in the middle of their usual hot mess of an offense. Said Broncos coach Sean Payton after the game: “It’s not a good offense we played. It’s just the truth.”
Dalton turns 37 on Tuesday and the Panthers pushed almost all their chips to the center of the table when they drafted Young No. 1 in 2023. Carolina will have to enter the QB sweepstakes again in 2025 — at this point that seems clear. Misfiring on the Young pick has set the franchise back at least two years.
The contrast between Young and not only CJ Stroud from last year but also several of the rookie quarterbacks from this year’s draft class couldn’t be starker. That was Denver rookie Bo Nix orchestrating one superb march after another Sunday, accounting for all four touchdowns for the Broncos (5-3) and never turning the ball over himself in his eighth overall NFL start.
And that was Young, now 2-17 overall in 19 NFL starts, throwing two interceptions in critical situations and flirting with delay-of-game penalties on about every third snap. Young also brought out one of his old favorites — the greatest hit no one wants him to play but that he can’t seem to resist. You know it after you see the quick scramble to the right: it’s the 4-yard checkdown pass on third-and-12.
At one point Sunday, Young and his offensive teammates — and let’s be fair, Carolina was missing its two best veteran receivers due to injuries — were so awful that in a six-drive span they gained a total of 27 yards and one first down. In six drives! Canales said during the game that they were “trying to find things that Bryce can throw with confidence,” but those were non-existent in those half-dozen possessions.
It was during that period that Denver went from 7-0 down to the Panthers to 21-7 up, and at that point the Panthers grew desperate enough to try a fake punt on fourth-and-6 from their own 24.
It was a silly thing for Canales to order up, because even if you make it, you’re at least 60 yards away from the end zone. But it still could have worked, had punter Johnny Hekker not thrown the ball like he was trying to hit a fan in the third row. Instead, Denver took over, quickly scored again and took an insurmountable 28-7 lead.
Not that Payton — reviled by many Panthers fans for all the beatdowns his New Orleans teams put on Carolina over the years — stopped trying to pile it on.
Payton has always done whatever he wants, in New Orleans or in Denver. On Sunday, Payton’s Broncos tried a fake field goal in the fourth quarter with a 21-point lead and later went with a double-pass trick play (neither of them worked for points). The fourth quarter’s only points came on Young’s late drive, when he took the Panthers 98 yards for a TD. If only it had mattered to anyone except bettors watching the over-under line (it was 41).
The score wasn’t as bad as the first two games Young started this year, when Carolina lost 47-10 to New Orleans and 26-3 to the L.A. Chargers. That’s when Canales benched Young, only two games into what we thought was going to be a resurrection project by a young quarterback whisperer of a head coach. But Canales, quickly, had enough.
Sunday’s final score sounded better than Young’s first two games in 2024 — as did Young’s final stats — but mostly due to all those garbage-time yards (although let’s pause and point out that the Panthers may have something good in undrafted rookie wide receiver Jalen Coker).
In reality, Young looked pretty much the same. He had a couple of nice moments, leading Carolina to an early 7-0 lead with a sharp 6-yard TD throw to rookie Xavier Legette following the Panthers’ recovery of a fumble at Denver’s 49. But then he had a lot of cringeworthy ones, too. “There was stuff left out there that I have to wear,” Young said, speaking about missed opportunities. “He ended up 24-of-37 for 224 yards, along with two TD passes and two interceptions.
In Young’s 19 NFL starts, those 224 yards actually rank as his fourth-most. This was also only the third time in those 19 starts that Young has thrown two or more TD passes.
In other words, statistically that was a Top 5 all-time NFL game for Young. And that goes to show you where the bar has been set.
Canales, I expect, will hem and haw a bit but quickly turn the reins over to Dalton again, as soon as Dalton can hold them.
Although it might technically be better for the Panthers to keep losing to try to secure the No. 1 draft pick in 2025 and pick another QB, it’s not necessarily better for Canales. He works for Panthers owner David Tepper after all, and Tepper fired his last head coach after just 11 games in 2023. Canales wants no part of a 1-16 season, and Dalton will likely squeeze out another win or two before this year as done.
As for Young, you hear the trade speculation constantly, but a trade at this point would likely net no better than a sixth-round pick. The entire Carolina QB situation will have to be revamped in the spring — again. Try to trade him? Sure. But the return is so small I bet it won’t happen. I’ll bet Young is still on the roster for the rest of the season, but only as a backup unless Dalton gets hurt again.
Young just isn’t ready. Still.
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
