Did Bryce Young just become the biggest bust in NFL history?

That’s the inevitable question coming out of the sports world on Monday, when the Carolina Panthers elected to bench the former first overall pick in favor of Andy Dalton for the team’s upcoming game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

To be fair and even somewhat blunt, the move itself is far from shocking in a vacuum. Young not only doesn’t look like he’s improved after a disastrous rookie campaign, but it appears he’s somehow regressed just two games in. His first pass being an overthrow directly into the arms of New Orleans Saints safety Will Harris was merely a prelude to the nightmare that was about to unfold. Young has thrown for only 245 yards in two games with a 0-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio. His one touchdown (and the only one the Panthers have scored thus far) was a scramble in garbage time against the Saints…and he had to recover his own fumble to do it. Even the basic eye test does Young no favors: he has no confidence in his ability to drive the ball downfield, he looks skittish in the pocket and makes ill-advised decisions under pressure, and he looks afraid to even move around in the backfield. It’s how you get games like the one he had against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday: 84 passing yards on 26(!!!) passing attempts.

First-year coach Dave Canales tried to quash any unrest and claim confidence that Young was the guy, but it was ultimately too hard to justify the position. It may be hard to bench a top overall pick so early into his career, but anything’s on the table with professional micromanager David Tepper as owner. When pressed about Tepper’s involvement on the decision to bench Young, Canales tried to deflect as the Panthers placed the responsibility at his and GM Dan Morgan’s feet, but anyone who’s followed this organization since the hedge fund manager took over in 2018 would be shocked if he didn’t have his own say in the matter.

The optimist might argue that benching Young now was the right decision. The argument would go that a stable veteran like Dalton would gives Canales and his staff a better picture of where the Panthers are currently at, and it’s still early enough in the year that Young can reset and return to the lineup when ready. Here’s my problem with that line of thinking: how can they be so sure that Young’s confidence will ever return? His press conference after the Chargers game was chilling: his body language and vague answers looked and sounded like those of a broken human being. Now the head coach that was brought in to revitalize your career has essentially turned his back on you after two games? The supposed franchise savior has just seen his career disintegrate into dust before his own eyes, and the clock on his stint in Carolina may already be ticking down.

To make matters even worse, take a look back at the trade that brought Young to Carolina. To acquire him, the Panthers traded top receiver D.J. Moore, their 2023 and 2024 first-round picks, San Francisco’s 2023 second-round pick, and their own second-round pick in 2025 to the Chicago Bears. Moore has emerged as the focal point of Chicago’s passing game. The 2023 picks were used on Darnell Wright (one of the only consistent performers on Chicago’s offensive line) and Tyrique Stevenson (a starting cornerback in one of the NFL’s more underrated secondaries). The 2024 pick turned into the first overall selection, allowing the Bears to draft ballyhooed USC product Caleb Williams. With how this season is going for Carolina, that second-round pick next year is looking like pick 33, which the Bears could package into securing a first-round pick anyway. That would have been a lot had the Panthers drafted eventual Offensive Rookie of the Year C.J. Stroud, but a quarterback who’s on the bench after just 18 games and two victories? It’s looking like the kind of trade that sets a franchise back years.

Despite all of this, would you like to know the worst part about all of this? Young may go down as the biggest bust in NFL history, and it isn’t even his fault. Sure, his poor play thus far hasn’t helped his case, but think about the company he keeps in that discussion. The likes of Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell, and Zach Wilson all had maturity issues that plagued their developments, and their floors turned out much lower than even the most pessimistic of expectations. With Young, on the other hand, his team hasn’t given up on him yet, and no one hears anything about him off-field that might lead to conclusions about character concerns. That’s not even considering the team in front of him. The Panthers tried to put some resources into helping Young out, but it doesn’t change that the collection of skill players is on the low end of the NFL hierarchy and the defense has taken two steps back. When the best player remaining is lost for the season in Week 1 and your top cornerback was just burned by maligned receiver Quentin Johnston for two touchdowns the very next game, no one can be surprised when even NFL analysts are calling your roster one of the worst ever assembled.

When it comes to all the factors that led to this moment, one has to only look at the constant variable in all of them: Tepper.

It has only been seven years into his tenure as Panthers owner, and he has already filled the void Dan Snyder left behind as the worst in the league. Look how the on-field product has devolved into what we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks. Counting interim coaches and holdover Ron Rivera, Carolina has already worked through seven head coaches under Tepper’s watch. The only hires that have been made in that time were Matt Rhule (college coach who didn’t pan out at the professional level) and Frank Reich (didn’t even make it out of his first season despite an all-star coaching staff that failed to coexist). It may be odd to say that Canales is already on the hot seat at the beginning of his six-year deal, but Tepper is also the same owner who fired Rhule midway through a seven-year contract and would still be paying him the buyout if it weren’t for Nebraska hiring him. Canales wasn’t just mentioned for the Carolina gig for his exemplary work in reviving the careers of Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield over the past couple years; it was also because he was one of the only candidates who would even remotely consider accepting the job. Signing on with the Panthers meant having to deal with an owner known for his impatience and meddling in team affairs, and Canales had to be at least acutely aware of these risks.

The quarterback situation hasn’t gotten much better, either. Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold were just there, Cam Newton came back briefly for little reason other than getting butts in seats, 2022 third-round pick Matt Corral didn’t even get a chance, and Teddy Bridgewater ended up being a free-agent bust. Now Young becomes the latest casualty as the revolving door continues to spin with no end in sight? It’s easy to say that Stroud or Williams could have been the answer but, with the way the Panthers are right now, Patrick Mahomes would struggle to win games with this group. It’s also important to know that Mayfield and Darnold have thrown for a combined 46 touchdowns and 14 interceptions since leaving the Panthers, and both are currently the starting quarterbacks of 2-0 squads in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings, respectively. If the Panthers get their choice of quarterbacks in 2025, what reason is there right now to think any of them have a shot to turn the tide?

That would be enough to establish Tepper as a terrible owner in the eyes of the NFL world, but his off-field exploits haven’t been stellar, either. A decision to cancel development on a practice site in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for the Panthers was received so well that the city sued the team and mudslinging has continued on both sides. A game against the Jaguars in Jacksonville saw Tepper pour drinks on opposing fans from his skybox. Tepper engaged in a feud with a Charlotte restaurant putting up a sign asking for Tepper to allow the coach and GM to make their drafting decisions, and the restaurant was all too happy to point out the owner’s poor decision-making practices.

Going back to Young, how could he or anyone possibly succeed in this environment? When a team has an owner that fancies himself a football genius and lords over his staff at every opportunity, management that has no choice but to cater to said owner’s every whim, and a coaching staff that rarely gets the chance to implement their vision before they get canned, what other outcome but failure is there? Young still has time to turn things around, but it’s hard to imagine that he will come even close to fulfilling a fraction of his potential so long as he stays in Carolina. There are options open to him if player and team decide it is in their mutual interest to part ways. Miami could use a backup plan if Tua Tagovailoa misses extended time with his recent concussion. The Los Angeles Rams could use him as an understudy for Matthew Stafford and see if Sean McVay can utilize him. The next opponent in the Raiders aren’t set at the quarterback position and could decide to bring Young in as a way to not force a decision and build up the rest of their roster. For Young, these spots represent a much-needed fresh start, and a change in scenery might be a better reset than rotting away on the Panthers bench if Dalton makes them look even semi-competitive,

Meanwhile, for the Panthers, it’s hard to tell if this is rock bottom or if there is somehow deeper to dig. Bryce Young has become a lose-lose proposition for them. If he stays, it’s unclear if he will ever develop properly and odds are he will become replaceable quickly; if the Panthers trade him, the team will likely have traded away a significant part of their future for what will likely amount to a late-round pick. The trade already has to be considered one of the worst in NFL history, and it will only rise up that pantheon if the Bears become a force within the next few years. To make matters worse, they’re the ones that will be stuck with Tepper and the rest of the dreck he’s assembled, meaning their situation will almost certainly get worse before it gets better.

I believe Carlito Keyes said it best: “This, my friend, is hell.”