The future between quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers has never appeared brighter than it does at this very moment. And to think, they wouldn’t be in this position if not for a traffic accident.
Five days before Carolina’s Week 8 matchup with the Denver Broncos, then-starting quarterback Andy Dalton and his family were involved in a minor car accident in Charlotte. Luckily, no one was seriously injured—but the 14th-year veteran did come away from the collision with a sprained right thumb.
That setback unexpectedly gave way to Young, who had been benched for Dalton after a disappointing first two games of the campaign. Young, in a pair of blowout losses in Weeks 1 and 2, passed for just 245 yards, zero touchdowns and three interceptions.
To that point, the 23-year-old was merely considered a temporary solution—as Dalton was likely in line to regain the job once healthy. Plus, there were rumblings that the organization was pretty much done with Young.
But, uh, something changed.
Young took the opening and never looked back, giving a solid account of himself against Denver that weekend and following that up with a triumphant performance over the New Orleans Saints in Week 9. And in the six games since his reentry, he’s looked every bit of the No. 1 overall pick that was drafted in 2023.
So, what if Dalton didn’t get injured? Would the Panthers have eventually wanted to get at least another look at Young before the 2024 season was over?
Head coach Dave Canales, who was largely non-committal to Young throughout much of the last few months, was asked exactly that on Monday.
“Yeah, it would’ve been really interesting,” Canales replied to ESPN’s David Newton. “And fortunately, fortunately, we got the opportunity, Bryce got the opportunity that he did. And on the other side of it, I was pulling for Andy at the time, too—who was building some weeks. He had a couple of rough weeks and was like, ‘Okay, here we go. Let’s get this thing back on track.’
“It’s two stories. And that’s life. Bryce made the most of his opportunities and here we are. Just, with the weekly growth and took another step in a positive direction against a really good team.”
That really good team was the Philadelphia Eagles, who narrowly avoided the biggest upset of the year in Week 14 to move to 11-2. Young passed for 191 yards, a touchdown and an interception against what was the No. 1-ranked defense coming into the weekend.
While those numbers didn’t translate into a win for the Panthers, Young stacked another encouraging outing on top of what’s been one of the best stories of the season.
