Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales stirred the pot when he called Bryce Young the franchise quarterback “right now.” The wording matters. Young is the guy in Carolina at the moment, but without an extension in place, that label comes with an expiration date.
That’s why the quote landed the way it did. Canales’ other comments sounded supportive enough, but the headline line still left the impression that Young is entering a season with plenty to prove. CBS Sports analyst Douglas Clawson took that idea a step further and forecasted that Young will be back on the bench this year for the second time in his career.
Clawson’s case starts with the schedule. The Panthers are staring at a brutal first-place slate, and even worse, they’re set to face the league’s toughest run of opposing defenses. By DVOA, the average defensive ranking on Carolina’s schedule is tougher than what any other offense has to deal with.
That is a rough setup for any quarterback, and it’s especially unforgiving for Young, who is trying to turn a solid step forward into something that can trigger a lucrative extension. Clawson argued that the progress has been overstated.
“Bryce Young has slowly taken steps forward in the Panthers offense, capped by going worst to first in the abysmal NFC South last season. Perhaps the improvements have been exaggerated, though,” CBS Sports' Douglas Clawson wrote.
He also pointed out that even with the improvement, Young still ranked 28th in the NFL in EPA per dropback. From there, Clawson laid out the prediction: “He will be benched in 2026 when he is unable to take Carolina to the next level.”
Clawson added another layer to the argument by tying it to the Panthers’ offseason moves. “Patience will run thin, especially after the team made two big signings on defense in free agency (Devin Lloyd and Jaelan Phillips). The team picked up his fifth-year option this offseason, but the Panthers' brash owner David Tepper won't put up with a step backward from Young.”
It’s a bold call, and that’s clearly part of the point. But there are strong reasons to think the Panthers won’t go that route this season.
Young has not really regressed during his NFL career. The progress has come in fits and starts, but it has been progress all the same.
Nothing in his track record says he’s suddenly about to fall apart to the point where a benching makes sense. Carolina might want more than a slight improvement, but that’s what he has delivered each year, and it doesn’t look like the kind of performance that would get him pulled.
There’s also the bigger picture. At this point, the Panthers aren’t in a position where benching Young would be some kind of useful reset.
That made sense earlier in his career. It doesn’t now.
This feels like a sink-or-swim season, and if Young sinks, Carolina has bigger problems than a midseason quarterback switch.
The backups don’t change that equation either. Kenny Pickett and Haynes King do not look like answers who would lift the Panthers out of trouble. Pickett has already bounced around five teams, and King’s showing in the Hall of Fame Game doesn’t mean much when real NFL competition starts.
So the real task in Carolina is simple, even if the answer isn’t. The Panthers need to figure out whether Young is the quarterback worth extending long term, and what that number should be. Benching him won’t solve that.
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Makai Lemon, who had been floated as another possible target for Carolina, has only added to the retrospective argument by struggling through the preseason. The Panthers are still being judged on the whole set of draft decisions, but this is the kind of development that can change the tone around a pick fast. What once looked like a reach now appears to have lined up neatly with a real roster need, and in Carolinas case those are the kinds of calls that tend to matter most. [Read more 🡒]