By Matt Stuart | Published | No Comments
Bryce Young had a rough day at the office on Sunday afternoon against the Indianapolis Colts. The young rookie quarterback threw three interceptions, two of them returned for touchdowns by Kenny Moore, and had minus-1 passing yards at the end of the first quarter. You read that right, Young had a minus net yardage in the passing game after one quarter of professional football.
Look I have been clear about this since last April’s draft, I did not think the Carolina Panthers made the right decision when they traded up, nine spots with the Chicago Bears, to take Young. The Panthers simply gave up way too much. Not only did they give up four draft picks, including next years first round pick, they also traded away their best offensive player in D.J. Moore.
Moore has been a top five receiver in Chicago so far this season, with 691 receiving yards, to go with 5 touchdowns on the season. Those numbers come, even with an obvious downgrade at the QB position over the last two weeks; as Justin Fields has been out with an injury.
I bet the Panthers could use Moore’s services right about now. No I was clear that I felt the better move would have been for the Panthers to keep Moore, take a bridge quarterback, and be patient and wait till the 2024 NFL Draft to take a quarterback. That’s not to say that any of the quarterbacks that are likely coming into the NFL from college next season, will be better than Young; it’s simply that they would have been inheriting a much better team than Young.
There is another side of the coin here though that must also be discussed and that’s who the Panthers could have taken number one – C.J. Stroud. Stroud has been everything that Young has not been. He has been poised in the pocket, gotten rid of the football quickly, avoided costly sacks, hit tight windows on deep throws down the middle of the field, and most importantly, he has taken excellent care of the football. Stroud has just one interception on the season, compared to seven interceptions for Young.
It of course impossible to say that Stroud would be having the same success in Carolina, and one could argue that swap the quarterbacks and Bryce would be having similar success in Houston. I disagree. Stroud has shown that he is simply better at doing more with less. Stroud also has the athleticism, size and arm strength that are all missing from Young.
The biggest problem, though, is that Young was just not ready to step in and be a day one starter; like his counterpart in Houston. The Panthers simply threw Young out there behind one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL and a receiving corps that lacks the ability to carry Young as he develops. The Panthers best receiver has been Adam Thielen, who is 33-years old, and is no longer the dynamic playmaker he was years ago in Minnesota.
When the Panthers did make their choice this past April in Kansas City, I said at the time, that I thought the best thing the Panthers could do was to sit Young for a season and let him have time to get a feel for the speed of the game and the types of on the fly decisions that quarterbacks, at this level, are consistently asked to make. That can often be impossible for many rookie quarterbacks at this level to master, when they have simply have never experienced it before.
Unfortunately, there was just no way the Panthers were going to convince themselves that was the best option; especially after everything that they gave up to take Young.
So now here we are. Through nine weeks, Young has still not thrown for more than 300-yards in a game, and has only one game where he has thrown for multiple touchdowns – a week four blowout loss to the Detroit Lions; in which Young had three passing touchdowns. On the flip side, Young has three games this season where he has thrown multiple interceptions, in fact, three of them. And while I am not a huge fan of QBR, it is at least one statistical method of evaluating a quarterbacks play, and Young is last in that category amongst quarterbacks that have started at least four games.
Sunday’s game against the Colts, should have given Young an opportunity to continue to add to the progress that he had made over his last two starts, and quite frankly, if I am being blunt, it should have been a game for Young to dominate against a bad defense that almost every quarterback that they have opposed; including several backups, have diced up.
Yet for Young it was a painful regression. It was almost as if Young had been teleported back to a dismal training camp 11 on 11 drill, where the defense was just teeing off on the new guy under center, in a sort of trial by fire welcome to the NFL moment. This type of performance never should have happened. It’s not like the Panthers were coming off a short week, or had an unusual number of players out because of injury. In fact, the Panthers had an extra week to work in offensive adjustments and scheming with their bye week. If anything, the Panthers should have been raring to go, but they looked lethargic on offense, and more often than not, discombobulated in their assignments. Young should have been able to move the ball against this Colts defense, that came into the week giving up the most points in the NFL.
In fact, the Colts had given up just over 26 points this season, but Young and the Panthers were only able to muster half that amount. Obviously all the problems are not on the shoulders of Young. It’s true that his offensive line has, for the most part this season, been horrendous. The Panthers pass catchers continue to struggle to get open and create decent separation, and the running game still ranks near the bottom of the league. Coaching has also been an issue, as head coach Frank Reich handed the offensive play calling duties over to OC Thomas Brown last week. But I would argue that the play calling has actually been worse since that move.
While the Panthers may have scored a victory a week ago against the Texans, it had very little to do with the offense and far more to do with the defense. The Panthers scored just 15 points a week ago against the Texans and mustered just 13 points this week against the Colts. Neither the Texans or Colts have an elite defense. The fact that the Panthers have averaged just 14 points over their last two games may indicate that making a switch at play calling has had a negative impact on Bryce and the offense, instead of a positive one.
The fact of the matter is this season is effectively over. The Panthers may have thought that Young and a scrappy offense may have been able to steal the NFC South this season, but that ship has sailed. The Panthers are 1-7, and while they have not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, they would have to go 8-1 over the remainder of the season just to have a shot at a wild card berth., and anybody that thinks the Panthers are going 8-1 the rest of the way needs electric shock therapy.
The fact is that Young has stopped developing and now seems so lost and broken that he is heaving desperate throws up that have no chance at being caught, at least by one of his pass catchers. Young also continues to take some absolutely brutal hits. He took two more nasty hits this week from a Colts defense that twice had pass rushers tee off on Young without an offensive lineman even getting a hand on them.
At this rate, Young is simply going to end up getting hurt; which would be the absolute worst thing for him and the Panthers, as any kind of serious injury at this point could cause him to miss most of training camp next season and also could cause him to miss some starts as well. The Panthers need only look at another former first overall pick in Joe Burrow to see what happens when a defense just keeps teeing off on a quarterback. Burrow eventually saw his promising rookie season cut short after he tore his ACL, having taken a laundry list of brutal hits behind his shaky offensive line.
Young needs to sit and not just for his benefit, but for the teams benefit as well. The Panthers backup quarterback, Andy Dalton, could give the offense a boost. Dalton is an experienced veteran, who understands how to deal with pressure a little better than Young does at this point in his career. Young sitting the rest of the season, would give him the opportunity to watch how Dalton preps and then handles those in game decisions. That kind of approach, I believe, would be more beneficial to Young at this point.
Young would have more time to develop, at a slower pace during each week of practice, as he could focus on some of the more finer points of his development. Also by putting Young with a competent quarterback coach, he could fix some of his footwork issues and throwing angles that have been problematic for Young so far this season.
Right now the only team the Panthers are helping is the Bears. As the Bears benefit with each loss Carolina suffers, because the Bears have Carolina’s first round pick in next years draft. It’s time for the Panthers to think about Young’s future, and do now, what they should have done before the season started and that’s let Young sit for a year.
That approached worked well for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who sat a full season and watched as veteran quarterback Alex Smith started. Mahomes gained valuable experience by watching Smith prepare each week and seeing how important end game adjustments are. Mahomes was able to be brought along at his own pace and that is precisely what I believe Young would benefit the most from right now.
There is still time for the Panthers to save Young and get him back on the right track, but that needs to start by protecting their most important assets, instead of continuing to throw him to the wolves each and every week; especially when Young is clearly struggling to make those improvements week to week. It may be now or never for the Panthers.
