Just two games into the new NFL season, the Carolina Panthers are making a change at quarterback. Bryce Young will now be replaced by veteran, Andy Dalton. The Panthers are 0-2 following two huge losses where they have shown little to no growth since last year. For Bryce Young, he has continued to struggle and that has led to Carolina’s offense being inept once again. The team has seemingly seen enough in his sophomore campaign and is hoping that a veteran presence at quarterback will somewhat bolster their passing attack at the very least.
Panthers Bench Second-Year Quarterback, Bryce Young
Bryce Young’s Growing Pains
To say Bryce Young has had a rough start to his NFL career would be an understatement. Last season, he logged only 11 touchdown passes to 10 interceptions and also had a completion percentage of only 59.8 percent. As if that were not bad enough, he also logged a passer rating of only 73.7 and threw for under 3,000 yards (2,877). While the Panthers have plenty of issues they need to address, it is looking more and more like Young could be the next NFL bust.
The first two games of this year have not helped his case. In said two matchups, the former Alabama product did not throw a touchdown pass and has recorded three interceptions already. Not to mention, he possesses a putrid passer rating of 44.1 and a quarterback rating of 8.9 to begin his sophomore campaign in the NFL. Not all of Carolina’s struggles are Young’s fault. However, he is doing more harm than good right now which has led to him getting benched for Andy Dalton.
Carolina Still in the Midst of a Rebuilding Phase
The Panthers are still one of, if not, the worst team in the league right now. They have a few promising pieces, but still have a long way to go to get back into contention. Going into Week Three, this squad ranks dead last (32nd) in points per game. They also rank last in yards per game, opponent points per game, 30th in opponent third down percentage, and 31st in yards per play.
Inserting Andy Dalton will hopefully increase some of these offensive statistics. However, the Panthers still have a ton of miscues to address as a team. Just because they changed quarterbacks does not mean they will improve to a five-to-six-win team all of a sudden. Benching Bryce Young was most likely the right decision for now, but Carolina is still a team that has a long ways to go in their rebuilding process.
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