The Carolina Panthers made the somewhat surprising move on Tuesday to bench former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young in favor of Andy Dalton. Young has little success through 18 career games and the 2024 season is off to a disastrous start. Most concerning, a reasonable person watching Panthers games is left to conclude that, at least in the short-term, things are hopeless.
Post-announcement debate has focused on two issues. First, could this really be it for Young? Could his career already be a bust even though he just turned 23 and we all saw him excel at Alabama not too long ago? And secondly, is the nightmare more a self-inflicted creation or squarely on the shoulders of an objectively bad organization?
Paul Finebaum weighed in on Wednesday's Get Up, conjuring up some hypothetical situations. Finebaum said Panthers owner David Tepper is vying to be the worst owner in modern NFL history and suggested that what the organization has done to Young is embarrassing and disgraceful. And that even the best quarterbacks to ever play the game would flounder under similar circumstances.
"Quite frankly, I think if you brought Patrick Mahomes into this franchise, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning as rookies, the Carolina Panthers would've screwed them up just as well as they did to poor Bryce Young."
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 18, 2024
—@finebaum 😯 pic.twitter.com/IFIQfKhxvx
"Quite frankly, I think if you brought Patrick Mahomes into this franchise, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning as rookies, the Carolina Panthers would've screwed them up just as well as they did to poor Bryce Young," Finebaum surmised.
Finebaum has the art of the take down to a science and this one is perfect because who could possibly disprove it? It would take multiple DeLoreans and permissions slips to run these simulations and they probably aren't even ethical.
Mahomes benefitted from learning at the knee of Alex Smith, Brady the same with Drew Bledsoe, and Manning was allowed the opportunity to throw 28 interceptions during their respective rookie campaigns. All, though, immediately looked more competent stepping onto the field than Young does to this point and it's not particularly close. Then you have to consider that the Panthers seemed to have no problem immediately developing Cam Newton.
So who knows?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Paul Finebaum: Panthers Would Have Screwed Up Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady Too.
