Andy Dalton helped Bryce Young ascend. Will the Carolina Panthers bring him back?
The Carolina Panthers have a starting quarterback heading into the 2025 season in Bryce Young — who punctuated a redemptive late-season resurgence with a five-touchdown season finale.
But what about Young’s close friend, mentor and backup?
What about Andy Dalton?
Dalton is among the 21 players on the Panthers roster who is set to become a free agent in March. The 37-year-old quarterback and 14-year NFL veteran told The Charlotte Observer that he hopes to return to Carolina when the dust settles, and he even indicated that it’s a fair possibility.
“I’ve loved it here,” Dalton said Monday. “I’d love to be a part of this thing. I’d love to get to be part of it when it turns around and the progression of it and get another year with this group and another couple years with it. But we got to go through the process of it all.
“I’ve had great conversations with everybody, so I look forward to seeing how it all plays out.”
Dalton isn’t the only one who wants him to return to the Panthers in 2025 and beyond. The quarterback who just wrapped up his second season and the guy Dalton was brought in to mentor — Young — wants him back. Head coach Dave Canales and general manager Dan Morgan have indicated the same.
“Me and Andy are super close,” Young said Monday. “From when I first got here, just being able to talk with him through things. Him having perspective on a situation I’d never been a part of, I was always leaning on him. Always having conversations. ... Having a guy like that, who really does it for the right reasons and wants to help, that’s super rare, so I’m super grateful for that.”
Said Morgan: ”I know that Andy is a really supportive teammate, and I know that him and Bryce have a super close relationship. So you definitely have to say that Andy was there for him and one of his biggest fans, and I’m sure he’ll tell you he’s super proud of him too.”
Why the Panthers say getting Dalton back is good
A big reason why Dalton is so beloved is because of his role in Young’s ascension this season.
After a 2-14 rookie season that was largely bereft of life, Young started fresh with a new offensive staff and a head coach with a reputation for rejuvenating quarterbacks with high potential in 2024. Immediate results weren’t promising. Two historically bad games in, Young was benched for Dalton, and Dalton went on to imbue some hope and life in the Panthers’ offense with good showings through his first three starts — which included a dominant win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3.
The bad vibes returned, though. Come the conclusion of Week 7, Dalton was 1-5 as a starter with the 40-7 beatdown at the hands of the Commanders fresh in Carolina’s minds. Two days after that Commanders loss, Dalton was in a minor car accident, sprained his right thumb, and Young was launched back in the starting spot.
It didn’t happen all at once, but Young’s play took huge step forward, culminating in a five-touchdown performance in a win over the Falcons in the Panthers’ season finale. Young’s stats from Week 8 to Week 18: 15 passing touchdowns, 2,104 passing yards, six interceptions, five rushing touchdowns.
All the while, you heard theories as to where Young’s improvement came from. Anecdotes of him gaining confidence as a scrambler on the Panthers’ practice squad, of learning the game from a new perspective as a backup — of learning from Dalton, specifically, as Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after Young nearly dethroned the Chiefs: “He’s lucky to have that redhead over there, that No. 14, to help him out,” the three-time Super Bowl champion coach said. “There’s nothing like having a veteran player who kind of sees it the same way you do.”
Dalton has a perspective behind Young’s resurgence, too. It’s something he drew from his own experience as a quarterback who’s been on both sides of a benching.
“I think part of it was probably good for him to take a step back, not have the pressure of it all and get to watch me operate, all the stuff that goes into it,” Dalton said. “But is it the reason why he started playing better at the end of the year? I don’t know that. That’s a question you gotta ask him. But it’s just a step back. And when you get another opportunity, it definitely can make you appreciate it in a different way. And it’s allowed him to play a lot better. He took it and ran with it.”
‘I’d love to have a chance to play again’
Dalton acknowledged there will always be a part of him who wants to start. It’s the way he’s wired, he said, and how he prepares every week during the season. He also has a stated goal of playing for three more years — so the 37-year-old can get to 40.
“I’d love to have a chance to play again,” Dalton said. “And I thought I was going to have it for this season. You know, and then a crazy circumstance happened. But I’m going to take it all under consideration going through this process, and I know if something wasn’t able to happen here, I know there will be other opportunities out there.
“But like I said, that’s part of the process that we’ve gotta go through and figure out and all that kind of stuff.
“But I’ve been very happy here. And I love it here. And I think it’ll all work out.”
