Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young was benched for veteran quarterback Andy Dalton last season, one year after being selected first overall in the 2023 NFL draft. It was a shocking move, but Panthers head coach Dave Canales is saying that the young gunslinger earned his respect with how he responded.
“He continued to lead throughout that process,” Canales said, according to Pro Football Talk. “He earned a lot of respect from his teammates, from me, that regardless of the situation — he didn’t agree with me on the decision not to play him — but he worked and he kept leading.
“He was showing me, ‘This is my team.’ And he was showing his teammates, ‘You’re my guys.’”
Canales said that after Young got to start again, following a wrist injury Dalton suffered in a car accident, Young showed that he was ready to shoulder the responsibility in his second go-around.
“He came back in and we started to grow together, and then building into that into the offseason, the leadership continued,” he said.
“That was the most impressive part to me. It’s a real challenge, we’ve seen different situations, different scenarios on teams where a top pick is struggling and can get isolated from teammates. He just stepped up.”
This season, Canales and the Panthers are looking for Young to put everything together on the field from start to finish and show the organization it was correct to return the reins of the team to him.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.