The Carolina Panthers may officially have made the worst trade in NFL history after the team sent Bryce Young to the bench on Monday. So yeah, after just two starts in the 2024 NFL Season, the former first overall pick of the 2023 NFL Draft is now on the bench:
BREAKING: The #Panthers are benching Bryce Young and will start Andy Dalton in Week 3 vs. the Raiders, per NFL Network. pic.twitter.com/TdtyE8UiW0
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 16, 2024
Backup quarterback Andy Dalton is going to get some starts, but that may not change the current situation they are in. Admitting defeat on Young after just two starts in 2024 is certainly a decision, but you have to wonder if this is just the Panthers letting Young ride the bench to perhaps reset himself a bit.
Andy Dalton is obviously not a long-term answer and is not going to be with the team much longer. There is reason to believe that head coach Dave Canales will insert Young back into the lineup after giving Dalton a few weeks.
Perhaps this is a spark that the offense desperately needs. Well, the Panthers had to trade up in the 2023 NFL Draft in order to draft Young, and this is the haul they had to give up to the Chicago Bears:
— Pardon My Take (@PardonMyTake) September 16, 2024
The Chicago Bears were able to get several starters out of this trade and still have the Panthers second-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, and that figures to be near the top of the round. This is just amazingly incompetent work from the Carolina Panthers, who are easily the most pathetic and embarrassing franchise in the NFL right now.
It doesn't feel like the Bryce Young era is going to amount to anything in Carolina. The Panthers might be firmly in line to have a top-3 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, which they could use to draft a new quarterback. The Panthers current regime did not draft Bryce Young, so they may want to bring their own guy in.
It's just not looking good for Young, who is also the size of a slot cornerback. The Panthers have set themselves back years with this horrid trade up to take Bryce Young. And to make matters worse, the next QB who went after Young was CJ Stroud, and it feels like even Stroud would have been able to find success in Carolina.
Where do the Panthers go from here? They'll probably win two games the entire season and again be in a position to blow it all up, and who knows if the current regime would even survive another year.