I grew up in Charlotte, and despite me moving away many years ago I still consider it as my hometown. I am not a Carolina Panthers fan, as the team arrived in Charlotte when I was 20 years old. I grew up and still am a Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins) fan, which was the popular team in Charlotte until the NFL expanded into the Carolinas.
So I know a thing or two about clown franchises.
With Daniel Snyder gone in Washington, David Tepper's Panthers have emerged as the newest clown prince of dysfunctional franchises in the NFL. That was confirmed today when it was announced that quarterback Bryce Young will be benched for Andy Dalton in Week 3.
Why is that the moment that made he write this? Well ...
*The Panthers seem to be throwing in the towel on Young, their No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 Draft. I'm not big on throwing players away so quickly, but I also agree that it does no good to keep living with a mistake.
*However, this team has invested heavily in acquiring Young. In 2023, the Panthers traded their 2023 first round pick (9th overall), their 2024 first round pick, a 2025 second round pick, and their top receiver, D.J. Moore. That 2024 first rounder turned into the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which Chicago was able to use to draft USC quarterback Caleb Williams. The Bears were able to obtain Williams, Moore and offensive tackle Darnell Wright, and still has the 2025 pick to use.
*What makes Young's selection worse is that quarterback CJ Stroud was selected right after him. Stroud was the 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year and led the Houston Texans to the playoffs.
*Also against Young is the fact that the Panthers had Sam Darnold in 2021 and 2022 and couldn't win with him. They also took a flyer on Baker Mayfield in 2022, and that didn't work out. Darnold is 2-0 with the Minnesota Vikings while Mayfield led NFC South rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the division title last year and has them 2-0 this season.
*Young is 2-16 as a starter in Carolina, with 11 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
That's just the Young part of things. Again, there are fans who are celebrating benching Young while others think that you are pretty much beholden to try to develop him and see if he is salvageable. This team isn't talented enough to go anywhere, so maybe playing Young and riding with whatever happens (even if that means getting the No. 1 pick again). That's why this is a bit weird.
Tepper wanted Young. He said so in a press conference. He hired Frank Reich, the former Indianapolis Colts head coach and Panthers quarterback, to be the head coach to mentor Young. He was fired just 11 games into his first season and replaced with Chris Tabor. Tepper hired Dave Canales as the new head coach for 2024, and you would think his top job duty would be to work with Young and unlock his potential.
Apparently that was just a two week project. The Bryce Young era ... despite all of the capital used to acquire the pick to draft him ... lasted just 18 games. That's Tapper in a nutshell during his time in Charlotte.
The Panthers have had six head coaches since Tepper bought the team in 2018. They had four under previous owner Jerry Richardson from 1995 to 2017 (22 years). That's usually a huge red flag of a bad owner -- one that's impatient and meddlesome. Tepper was the guy who wanted Young and, it seems, everyone had to play along. It has long been rumored that Reich didn't want Young ... but Tepper gets what he wants. During his short reign as Carolina's head coach, Reich admitted that Tepper would meet with him and go over on field ideas.
Just yesterday after the Panthers' 26-3 home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, Canales said that Young is still his starting quarterback. Well, that ended today when Canales magically changed his mind on the matter. When asked by the media if Tepper had any input on the decision, Canales answered by saying he wanted to keep that "private".
That said a lot.
So either Tepper meddles in personnel decisions, or he hires people who aren't good at their job. He hired Canales and general manager Dan Morgan this offseason ... and neither of them were responsible for drafting Young. But both were tasked with making him successful, and they seemed to think that it wasn't going to happen after just two weeks. The team traded away its top receiver and valuable draft picks to acquire Young and are ready to throw him away.
Think about this: they traded two 1st round picks, two 2nd round picks and DJ Moore for Bryce Young. That means they traded their best receiver (Moore) and all that to get Young, who they are now throwing away. They also traded Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers for a second, third, fourth and fifth round pick in 2022. This offseason, they also traded linebacker Brian Burns for a second and fifth round pick. So they traded arguably their three best players and four draft picks (including two first round picks) and got one first round pick out of all of that... and that was the one they used to draft Young.
Now, I want to stress that this isn't about how Young is a victim of being drafted into a poor organization. Well, he sort of is, but he has played poorly and under most circumstances the Panthers would be right to bench him for Andy Dalton. Dalton was once a decent starter for nine years with the Cincinnati Bengals but has spent the last five years as a backup or mentor for a young QB in Dallas, New Orleans, Chicago and Carolina. He's been astute at picking his jobs, as he's ended up starting 30 games over the last four seasons, and will add to that total starting in Week 3.
Young has been really, really bad and hasn't shown anything close to improvement. If the Panthers hadn't given up so much for him, benching him would make sense. Maybe it does anyway if he has lost the locker room or he's in such a bad place that sitting for a bit and learning from the sidelines is truly the best idea to crack open his potential. Young may never be a starter in the NFL again. Or he could be like Darnold and Mayfield and just needs to get away from Charlotte and into a functional organization that can foster their talent.
There's no doubt that the Panthers will be a better offense with Dalton running it. He's experienced and understands the assignment. Still, how much better will the Panthers be? The roster isn't talented enough to compete for the NFC South title ... let alone a playoff spot. Dalton is in his 14th season and isn't the future of the franchise. Young may not be, either, but the organization felt he was at one point and may be best served to ride this thing out. Even if Young continues to struggle, they'd probably get one of the top picks in the draft where they could move on from Young and draft his replacement.
Of course, that's not happening. As Tepper did with Reich ... and Matt Rhule ... and Ron Rivera ... he's ready to move on to the next thing. Maybe that would even mean ditching Canales. Who knows? This is a guy who argues with critics, shows up to local businesses that troll him, and throw drinks at fans. There have been reports of a stressful and dysfunctional environment within the organization. There have been plenty of promises that haven't been kept and projects that never got off the ground. To many NFL observers, Tepper's Panthers has taken over the title as worst owner and franchise now that Snyder sold the Commanders (but Snyder is by far a worse owner than Tepper could ever dream to be).
That means nothing to Panthers fans, who want nothing more than for Tepper to sell the team. This was a franchise that went 17-1 and played in a Super Bowl in February 2016 that has yet to have a winning record since he took over just two years later. They are 31-70 since Tepper took over -- worst record in the NFL during that span. While I am not a fan, I'm a Charlottean and many of my family and friends are Panther fans who are sick of Tepper and what he's done to this franchise. Maybe he'll realize he can get a great return on his investment and sell the franchise for twice what he paid for it and the fans can get what they want.
Bench Tepper.
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