The recent benching of Bryce Young has unearthed some bitter truths about the Carolina Panthers organization. So much so, that Young’s mishandling might cause the up-and-coming stars to refrain from the Carolina football team altogether. Why? The NIL landscape of today’s era has given much needed flexibility to players to carve out their own career trajectory.

Mike Florio and former Patriot, Devin McCourty, discussed the matter at length and concluded that rookies should just stay away from the Panthers. The Panthers changed 3 head coaches with a span of the last two seasons, and that’s something that no rookie wants to be a part of.

“If I’m Carson Beck, Shedeur Sanders, top prospect, if the Panthers are going to draft me next year, my message to them is ‘I’ll just live off my NIL money and I’ll re-enter the draft in 2026,” Florio said.

“I’m not going to let you ruin me the way you ruined Bryce Young, because at some point it’s on the organization for drafting the guy they shouldn’t have drafted, failing to develop him and just putting him in the middle of dysfunction and expecting him to function,” Florio said on NFL on NBC.

It’s important to note that the Panthers were going to draft CJ Stroud or Anthony Richardson, but settled on Bryce Young because of the owner, David Tepper. As far as Young’s development is concerned, Dave Canales is the third head coach he’s playing under in a span of a season. How many playbooks can a quarterback absorb and apply in a short crunch? But the internet is still quick to slander Bryce Young.

A perfect example of how surroundings affect a player is Baker Mayfield. After leaving the Browns, Mayfield played for the Panthers for a short time and put up 1,313 yards and 6 touchdowns and 6 picks. His next year with the Rams wasn’t impressive either. However, Mayfield broke all the barriers when he was given the starting job for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He put up 4,044 yards, 28 touchdowns and 10 picks under Todd Bowles and topflight talent like Mike Evans. The Bucs even went to the playoffs and defeated the Eagles last year! That’s how much getting away from Carolina affected Baker Mayfield. It’s the same case with Sam Darnold. First off, the Jets didn’t surround him with good talent and didn’t help him develop. Things weren’t much different when he landed in the Panthers and left the same year that Baker Mayfield did. Now he’s the starter for the Vikings surrounded with stars like Justin Jefferson and that has proved to be everything Darnold needed to succeed.

However, let’s look at Baker Mayfield’s time at Carolina Panthers in detail.

What happened between Baker Mayfield and the Carolina Panthers?

It was the summer of 2022 when Baker Mayfield got the starting job at Carolina over Sam Darnold. However, he went 1-5 as a starter and got benched later. Not only did the Panthers fired HC Matt Rhule for the underwhelming performance, but they also made Baker a third string QB before he got traded to the Rams. Apparently, the trade came at Mayfield’s request.

His former teammate, DJ Moore thought Mayfield was a “cool dude” and added that he didn’t see his departure coming. But the trade was even more devastating for his former Browns’ teammate Austin Corbett, who was on the Panthers at the time. After the QBs exit, Corbett told media that “It’s shocking to us,” and that “He’s the ultimate teammate. Everybody loved him. He loves everybody in here. It hurts. I just hope somebody claims him off waivers and he gets into another room.”

Maybe the same things are true about Bryce Young, but we didn’t get a chance to see that side of him. Young felt distraught and emotional at the press conference after the game against the Chargers. It was sad. Rumors are strong that Bryce Young might get traded from the Panthers very soon, he might just find himself sitting behind a veteran quarterback as he should have in the first place.