It’s safe to say that the Carolina Panthers’ season did not start the way that they anticipated. The Panthers have started 1-2 with brutal losses to the Saints and the Chargers. But what has made this season such a disaster up to this point is Bryce Young’s performance. However, with Andy Dalton now starting at quarterback, the Panthers’ offense looks much better after a dominant win against the Raiders.

To start this conversation, fans think back to over two years ago when the Panthers traded up in the NFL draft with the Chicago Bears, sending star receiver D.J. Moore and multiple draft picks to land the number one overall pick. With that pick, the Panthers decided to select Bryce Young, the quarterback from The University of Alabama. It was the consensus at the time that Young should be the number one pick.

Where things started to take a turn was how the Panthers supported their rookie quarterback. Young struggled in his rookie season, partially due to his own play, but mainly because of the lack of surrounding talent around Young. Young’s receivers were towards the bottom of the league in separation, and his offensive line struggled immensely, giving up 62 sacks to Young on the season.

Young struggled in the 2023 season, but he showed many flashes of why he was the number one overall pick. For example, in week 16 against the Green Bay Packers, Young had his best game of the season. Young threw for 312 yards and completed two touchdown passes.

Aside from the numbers, the week 16 game showcased what many fans saw from Young at Alabama. His creativity and ability to extend plays when it looks like nothing is available was on full display that week. This performance in particular gave Panthers fans hope for the 2024 campaign.

In the 2024 offseason, the Panthers started by hiring new General Manager Dan Morgan. Morgan is a former Panthers player and is highly respected throughout the NFL as both a scout and now, General Manager. Morgan was in charge of finding a new coach for the team, and he landed on California native Dave Canales.

Canales was hired to try and ‘fix’ Young. Canales had experience with resurrecting struggling quarterbacks’ careers. Both Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks quarterback and Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, signed big contracts after working with Canales and are some of the top quarterbacks in the league. This is a pretty impressive résumé, which led to Canales being hired by the Panthers.

The Panthers then started surrounding Young with more talent to protect them. They spent big money on two offensive linemen, Robert Hunt, and Damien Lewis, to build up the interior of the offensive line. Next, they traded cornerback Donte Jackson for former Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson. Johnson is universally known as a great route runner who can provide Young with a consistent route runner at the receiver position.

In the 2024 NFL draft, the Panthers traded up to draft South Carolina native Xavier Legette. Legette is a player with great speed who can threaten the defense vertically on deeper routes, something the team did not possess last year. They also drafted former Texas Longhorns running back Jonathan Brooks and tight end Jatavion Sanders. Overall, the Panthers front office did a solid job of surrounding Bryce Young with more talent to perform better in the 2024 season.

Fast-forward to the season, Young has struggled even worse than in the 2023 season despite the talent surrounding him. If Young was making minor mistakes, then this would not be a big concern, but the way he is struggling worries fans the most. Young has lost his pocket presence and is not playing with any confidence. It started with throwing an interception on his first play of the season against the New Orleans Saints.

Also, the Panthers currently have one of the top offensive lines in the league, which makes Young’s struggles so much more concerning. Young has the pieces around him to succeed, but his lack of confidence in the offense has led to the Panthers now benching Young for veteran quarterback Andy Dalton. In week 3, the Panther’s offense looked strong, as Dalton proved this past Sunday that there is more than enough talent on the offensive side of the ball.

Many Panthers fans are asking themselves who is at fault for the disappointing start to Young’s career. This loaded question concerns many Panthers fans who do not have a nuanced understanding of the situation. Two things can be true: the Carolina Panthers failed to support Bryce Young with adequate talent to play quarterback in the NFL which led to Young losing his confidence and ability to play like he did at Alabama; and at the same time, Young, as the number one overall pick then should be able to perform with a less than ideal situation and show why he was picked so high in the NFL draft.

Was Bryce Young always going to be bad? No one will ever know, but the most likely answer is that Bryce Young should not have gone number one overall, and the Panthers also failed to support Young enough at the same time. Ultimately, this all falls on the shoulders of David Tepper.

Tepper is widely known as one of the worst owners in the world of sports. Tepper is a meddling owner who wants to get in the way of what the coaches want.

There is a rumor around the league that the Panthers’ coaches, at the time of the 2023 NFL draft, wanted to draft CJ Stroud, but Tepper wanted Young. Tepper made the final decision to draft Young. Stroud is one of the best young quarterbacks in the league and has the Houston Texans set to make a deep playoff run.

Success in sports starts at the top and goes down, and when your team is run by debatably one of the worst owners in the NFL, it becomes extremely difficult to have sustained success in such a difficult league. Now the Panthers sit at 1-2 and will likely have much more success as long as Dalton is starting at the quarterback position. Even with Dalton at quarterback, Young will certainly have another opportunity to compete in the NFL, whether with the Panthers or with a different organization.

Best-case scenario, he takes these couple of weeks on the bench, regains his confidence, and comes out playing like all Panthers fans want him to play. Worst case scenario, he comes out and still looks unsure of himself after Andy Dalton plays well. All Panthers fans can hope is that the front office knows what they are doing and soon enough the team will be ready to compete.