Week 2 produced another loss featuring a dismal offensive performance by the Panthers. When asked about a potential quarterback change, however, head coach Dave Canales gave a public vote of confidence in starter Bryce Young. 
“Bryce is our quarterback,’ Canales said (via ESPN’s David Newton). “We’re going to continue to shore up and fix the things we need to fundamentally, from a scheme standpoint, all those things.”
Young started all but one game during his rookie season, one in which Frank Reich was fired midway through his first year as head coach. The target of Carolina’s blockbuster move up the draft order for the No. 1 pick struggled across the board, throwing nearly as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns (11) and taking 62 sacks. The Panthers finished 2-15, but the terms of the Young trade left them without their Day 1 selection in 2024.
Aiming to take needed steps forward on offense, the Panthers dismissed general manager Scott Fitterer and hired Canales as a coach capable of overseeing Young’s development. The 43-year-old impressed during a lengthy tenure in Seattle, and his work with Geno Smith landed him the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator gig last year. Canales helped Baker Mayfield enjoy the best statistical season of his career in a number of respects and put himself on the head coaching radar as a result.
Carolina made a pair of big-money additions along the offensive line during free agency (guards Robert Hunt and Damien Lewis) while also bringing in a number of new faces at the skill positions. An emphasis was placed on the run game to help ease the burden on Young, but the Panthers currently rank just 29th in production on the ground so far. A step forward in passing efficiency would help compensate for that, but Young’s performances in the NFL to date have offered few signs that will be taking place soon.
The Alabama product has mustered 245 scoreless passing yards with a 55.4% completion percentage through two games, throwing three interceptions during that span. While Young has scored a rushing touchdown, his showings individually and those of the Panthers as a whole have left plenty to be desired. The team has scored only 13 points across the past four games dating back to the end of the 2023 campaign.
Andy Dalton resides as Carolina’s backup signal-caller. The 36-year-old racked up 361 yards and a pair of touchdowns during his lone start last season, and with 170 games of experience he would likely offer considerably more stability under center than Young as things currently stand. Calls for major changes on offense will no doubt continue if Young still struggles, but for at least the short term Canales is set to maintain the status quo at the QB spot.
Awesome! Thanks for the laughs, Carolina. Maybe Tepper will throw drinks in Young’s face next.
“It was a uNaNiMoUs decision to draft Young over Stroud” -Tepper
Pretty sure Reich mentioned he wanted Stroud tho…
Why? We all knew he and Richardson would bust. Next up, Williams.
lol. You seem awfully excited at the thought of these guys failing. I’m not optimistic about Young, but certainly not drawing any negative conclusions about the other two yet.
Williams looked awful last night: sacks, bad passes, & picks.
It was his second ever NFL start, while facing a tough defense and having pretty serious pass protection problems. He didn’t play a very good game, but plenty of quarterbacks have had rocky early games and still become stars.
We’ll see. His playing went against 100% of the off-season hype, though. He looked utterly lost on the field.
name a good bears QB
you cant, this dude has SO much pressure on himself to be great, he’s just folding a little bit…I know for a fact he will be good, he’s young and needs time.
Hard not to look a little off your skates when it’s your second game in the NFL and your blockers can’t pick up a single stunt. I’m still a believer.
Copy & pasted from BR today: Article is titled ‘NFL Team Needs…’
‘It’s only been two games, but there’s no denying Caleb Williams has been underwhelming for the Chicago Bears so far. Williams has only thrown for 267 yards and had two interceptions in Chicago’s loss on Sunday night. It’s still early, but the rookie has plenty of room for improvement to live up to the hype.’
His issue is he plays for the Bears. They had two top 10 picks and used them on him and another WR. This draft was loaded with talented linemen and Chicago is yet another franchise that prioritizes the flashy positions while not giving their QB a line to throw behind. The reason teams like the Eagles, Packers, and Cowboys are competitive year in and year out is they never neglect the line.
Of course Williams has room to improve. Again, it’s his second game. I was responding to a guy who’s already calling Williams a bust before you tagged in.
Williams looks like a polished passer that needs a short time to adjust – he has it all. Richardson looks like the superior athlete that he is, but has a loooong way to go to being an NFL QB – he’s only thrown 500 passes, total, since high school…
It’s easy for fans to forget that Tom Brady didn’t break 90 QB rating until year 5 and his first MVP was in year 8. That great team around him helped his development too…
Good luck telling people that on here, where everyone likes to pretend Belichick’s success is all a Brady creation.
From google: ‘Yes, Belichick’s record as a head coach without Brady is 85-102.’.
That’s over 9 seasons for that record.
And Brady got the best years of Belichick. Belichick in his prime pulled an 11-5 season with Matt Cassel.
‘In his prime’ Bill went a whopping 36-44 in 4 years while HC’ing Cleveland. Tom made that franchise go. Then 3 out of 4 years losing w/o Tom after he left for greener pastures in Tampa.
Clearly Cleveland wasn’t his prime, nor were his last couple of years in New England. And even then he was one of the best defensive coaches in football. The idea that having perhaps the best defensive coach in football history was a footnote to having Brady is silly and ahistorical.
Isn’t that convenient? Bill wasn’t in his HC’ing prime w/o Tom? That’s what you’re saying? All of the other NE assistant HC’s that went on to fail on their own, were they not in their primes w/o Tom either?
Performance of assistants elsewhere doesn’t signify whether or not Belichick did a good job. If you want to talk about Belichick’s coaching, maybe talk about the actual coaching. Pretty convenient for Brady that the Patriots gave up the third fewest points in football over his time there. Convenient for Brady that Belichick completely changed his defense for the 2019 Super Bowl and demolished a Rams offense that had run up the score on just about everyone else, allowing Brady to win a Super Bowl despite having a mediocre game. Obviously none of this is to rag on Brady. He was phenomenal. But the idea that Belichick was only riding his coattails is silly. This doesn’t have to be an either/or thing. Winning Super Bowls is incredibly hard. Only five coaches have won more than two–all great coaches, but also needed to have great QBs. Only five quarterbacks have started and won more than two Super Bowls. All are hall of famers, but all of them have also had among the greatest coaches of all time.
Wannabe lawyer, grow up. Bill and all of his coordinators were nothing w/o Tom. The facts show that clearly. As for successful assistants, it has been well-documented since the 1970’s. Winning HC’s have a coaching tree. Bill’s tree is dead. Not a single successful coordinator did anything on his own. That includes your boy B. Daboll. You raved about him being a good HC. That idiot signed off of re-upping Dan Jones!
You think Bill’s prime only existed when he was coaching Tom. That’s great comedy. Learn the game prior to commenting.
Remember when you said you never respond to my comments and I shouldn’t respond to yours? Maybe you should try sticking to that since you can’t ever resist trying to be nasty to me, even though you say things that don’t make sense. I’ve tried telling you that you seem much smarter when you’re not trying to take people down a peg, but I guess you can’t resist the siren song of crapping on Williams and Belichick.
If Bill hadn’t gotten lucky drafting Tom in the sixth round, he wouldn’t be a footnote in the league—simple as that.
You called me out, saying, ‘People on this site think Bill is a bad HC.’ He is! Well except for his prime years w/ Tom, according to you, that is.
I actually wasn’t specifically calling you out. And I’ve cited enough facts. He’s inarguably one of the greatest defensive coaches of all time (he was also defensive coordinator on two Super Bowl winning teams before his New England days), among other things. You can keep trying to take everyone down a peg without me, thanks.
Steve Spagnuolo has 4 rings as a DC. Is he better than Bill or his equal? How about Richie Petitbon’s or Romeo Crennel’s 3 rings each?
As for C Williams, show me one ‘Power Rankings’ from this week in which anyone says Calib is looking great. I can’t find one. Maybe he turns around the season and his career; maybe he ends up busting as many first picks do. But he’s fair game to be mocked or gawked at after now. He’s looking more like Young than Stroud so far.
Belichick was the defensive play caller and de factor defensive coordinator for the Patriots most of that run. You must pay enough attention to football to know this.
As for Williams, again, I’m not saying he’s currently in this moment a great NFL quarterback, but he’s two games in. And he doesn’t look like Young, because he doesn’t look like he lacks the physical or processing ability to become much better.
So Bill wasn’t in his prime as DC for the Giants when they won 2 rings but was in his prime some 20 years later with Tom as his QB?
Bill was a great DC, but he was nothing as HC without Tom. The win/loss record shows that.
I’ve already read the other several times you’ve said this.
And yet you keep replying. I can’t knock you down a peg because you’re not standing on a peg.
If Young keeps looking this bad, they might need to start Dalton just as a diagnostic of the supporting cast. On the other hand, if Young keeps looking this bad, they might as well coast to the number one overall pick.
Young hasn’t looked good, but man, you absolutely have to question the playcalling there, especially in the fourth quarter. Ekwonu is also, unfortunately, as unsteady as I suspected he’d be at LT. I’m not sure what we’re expecting Young to do with this team right now. He might be permanently ruined, but what should the team do right now with nonsensical playcalling and bad performances all around?
Also, I get emphasizing additions on the offensive side when you’re trying to develop a young QB, but their defense has so, so little talent, and forcing a young QB to constantly play from behind is also a huge detriment–not that Young isn’t contributing to that problem himself.
I agree completely. I don’t know what chance the poor guy has right now to improve, especially with the staff turnover and putrid environment there. Canales’ playcalling so far, which was the thing that you’d hope to see improve the team, has been really suspect to me. I get that he’s growing on the job himself, but it’s really some of the hardest football I’ve ever had to watch.
You are correct about the defense and playing from behind, as well. To be honest, I actually think that Young’s mentality is about as good as it could be in this situation. Going out and getting killed and not playing well with utterly no success will wear on a person, and will definitely affect his/her future output. I felt at the time that Carolina forced the trade, but I didn’t expect them to fail THIS badly.
Aaaaaaand Dalton is the starter now lmao
Canales also added:
“We are absolutely not considering a trade either. Bryce is our guy. End of story”
“….but just for conversation, what are you offering?”
Three yards a pass doesn’t cut it. Canales needs to let Young take shots downfield. If the present offense continues, it proves that Canales doesn’t trust Young to complete legitimate forward passes and that Canales is not being honest with Panthers fans. Canales will lose the players and the fans if he does not open up the offense to see what Young can do. What is there to lose? They’re getting the (pick a word) beaten out of them each week anyway. If the offense is opened up and Young fails, Dalton should be the next man up.
Watching young QB’s start from the get-go in the NFL is the worst. Especially in lousy franchises. CAR roster has to be one the worst. They most certainly should start Dalton if nothing more to put a semi-competative offense on the field. What improvement has Young shown in Year 2? Other than having the honor of scoring their only TD in 2 games. I’m sure he’s a good person, with some sort of skill set. Those might be the only traits that separate him from Zach Wilson at this point in his short career.
Starting Dalton for a game or 2 at some point shouldn’t be considered a demotion for Young if it’s handled correctly. Let him watch with the coaches, see things from another perspective, and maybe learn a couple of things. Let him get his head on straight and rest his body a little. This team isn’t going anywhere and for better or worse Young is still the future at QB regardless.
Everyone, myself included, laughs at the quarterback salaries, but I’d rather have Dak, Kirk, or Trevor at their price point than Bryce on a rookie deal.
Only if they had a better supporting cast and an owner who wasn’t a moron.
There’s something amiss with Young and his ability to get the ball out on passing downs. He seems to be off target too much. Watching ‘highlights’ his passes were short, behind or led too much. Makes me wonder if it’s jitters or vision or processing. Any of those would make a change at the position valid.
However if there is a fear making a change might impact his ‘confidence’ then might be he’s not an nfl starting caliber QB. There were moments where the run game produced yardage and could be to stick with that a bit more and use ‘screens’ and ‘short passes’ to boost production
I can’t think of a team that achieved success by having a revolving door approach to the QB position. The Panthers are delusional to think these guys they get can be immediate impact players when there is basically no support around them.
Thank you lovie smith
Apple News just sent a drop down that said they are going to bench him. I can’t read the article because I am not going to pay for it. So who is correct. I thought they moved up and spent too much but then they took the wrong QB. Never thought that kid would be a great QB. Stroud would have been my pick. Easy to say now but true.
I highly doubt that Stroud would have done well either given the circumstances.
Well this articles didn’t age well
That was super quick flip flop. Dalton must look like Joe Montana in prac compared to Young’s play.
This aged like fine wine! Lol, 2 hours later he’s being benched? This organization is total chaos due to Tepper! I feel bad for Young, as his confidence will never recover after this bad of an audition. He should’ve NEVER started last season with that cast of skill players.
Bryce Young should be asking for a trade to a team in the NFL because Carolina isn’t one and it starts with the owner.
Can the Red Rifle make a difference against the Raydahs!
In Chicago its simple … run the ball! At least the line will look less pathetic. There were unblocked rushers all game …
Wonder who made this call…. Tepper or the coach