The Quarterback. It is often referred to as the most important position in all of sports. If you have the right guy, you are competing for championships. Have the wrong guy and you are in for a lot of losing. When the Carolina Panthers decided to trade for the number one pick of the 2022 NFL draft, the logic was sound, but everything they did after this decision couldn’t have gone worse.
Three years prior to the trade, the Panthers constantly struggled without the stable presence of Cam Newton, their quarterback for nearly a decade prior. From Teddy Bridgewater, to Sam Darnold, to Baker Mayfeild, and then back to Sam Darnold, none could find their footing in Charlotte. Owner David Tepper, fed up with the constant losses and quarterback struggle, decided to start fresh and hire a new head coach. He, along with the general manager, were given two directives, find the right quarterback and WIN.
To accomplish the first request by their owner, the Panthers management decided to make a blockbuster trade with the Bears for the number one overall pick in the upcoming draft. In order to do so, the team parted ways with two of their upcoming first and second round picks and most importantly (at the time of the trade) star wide receiver DJ Moore. Moore had been a stalwart of the Panthers for years, always a steady force among the mess of signal callers in Carolina. But this loss would be worth it in the end, if they could find their guy.
There were two options at QB with pick number one of the draft. Bryce Young, the short but mighty former Heisman winner out of Alabama, or CJ Stroud, the prototypical tall and big armed thrower of the ball from Ohio State. Carolina went with Young, and a new era of Panthers football began.
A year and half later, this decision has been catastrophic, with Young benched only 18 games into his career.
Young has been awful, there is no sugarcoating it. While not completely his fault, as he has been given nearly nothing to work with on Carolina’s barren roster, he has still been far below his expectations as a prospect. However, it is hard to say this could not be predicted. Short quarterbacks have almost never been successful in the most physical sport in America. This on top of the fact that Bryce was never a very fast quarterback, making it nearly impossible for him to escape the pocket and see plays downfield.
So they messed up the pick, it happens. What is particularly terrible about this situation is what surrounds this colossal miss of a draft pick. His draftmate, the aforementioned CJ Stroud, has had a stellar start to his career with the Houston Texans, winning a playoff game in his first year. That is not even the worst of the problem, however. That honor goes to the haul they parted with to acquire Young.
Because of Young’s poor play, the Panthers earned the number one overall pick with the worst record in the league. That pick, however, was given to the Bears in adherence to the trade agreement for Young. The Bears then used the pick to select generational prospect Caleb Williams, to pair with the also acquired DJ Moore. While Williams had his struggles through the first few weeks of the season, he is starting to find his mojo, the same can not be said about Young.
The final nail in the coffin for this disaster was hammered in late September, when Young was benched for longtime veteran Andy Dalton, whom has not struggled nearly as much as Young did.
At this point it is hard to see a future for Young in Carolina, with his backup leading the team much better than he ever did. It would probably be best for both sides to move on and start fresh. Unfortunately, that most likely will not happen and Young will be stuck in Carolina, wasting away in what might have been.