We should preface the following with a vital disclaimer. Anyone who is out on Bryce Young right now is foolish. A mere seven starts isn’t nearly enough time to evaluate a rookie quarterback still learning the nuances of the game. Down the line, there is a chance that the 2023 top pick can become a franchise quarterback.
It’d be silly to suggest anything otherwise.
That said, it’s hard not to wonder what the Carolina Panthers would look like if they had drafted C.J. Stroud instead — the runaway favorite for Offensive Rookie of the Year and perhaps the best rookie quarterback ever. Because it’s not as if Stroud’s situation in Houston, on paper anyway, is all that much better than Young’s in Carolina. Even with promising young weapons like Tank Dell, the Texans are a bad team. They have no business hanging around .500 halfway through the season. Yet Stroud is somehow elevating them, giving his team a chance to win every single week.
Conversely, Young has resembled, well, a young quarterback. But his inexperience shouldn’t excuse how pedestrian he looks from week to week. The three interceptions he threw against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday — including two pick-sixes to Kenny Moore — are three times more than Stroud’s entire 2023 pick output. And with an atrocious roster from top to bottom, the Panthers have placed Young in an impossible position, virtually guaranteeing his development will be stunted.
But seeing how Stroud has thrived anyway amidst similar circumstances should sting Panthers brass. He could’ve and probably should’ve been their quarterback of the future. Heck, I’m sure some people in Charlotte have already privately waved the white flag on the guy they got instead. How could they not? Some quarterbacks are built to rise above it. Bryce Young might not be.
Drafting him is a mistake Carolina may likely regret for years to come.
Young’s woeful Panthers are a crucial segment of For The Win‘s Week 10 NFL power rankings, which also features not one but two AFC North powers on the rise.
