Why are people giving Bryce Young a side-eye? He did what he was expected of as a rookie, right? Young was hurled at the starting quarterback job at the behest of owner David Tepper and has gone through several coaching changes ever since. That prompts us to think whether it’s the 2023 first overall pick the problem or the surrounding system.

Mark Schlereth and his colleague Mike Evans discussed Young’s benching in detail. The conclusion? Well, it looks like the team owner might have miscalculated Bryce Young’s potential in the first place. After all, Tepper’s employees just complied with him when the billionaire said he wanted Bryce Young instead of CJ Stroud or Anthony Richardson. Mike Evans of The Stinkin Truth Podcast with Mark Schlereth pointed out how Bryce Young has the worst win-loss record of a first-round pick QB in the modern NFL. The Panthers are now 2-16 with Bryce Young and Mark Schlereth thinks that it has something to do with the team owner, David Tepper.

“This is what happens when an owner owns an organization and appoints coaches but doesn’t empower them. When the owner usurps people that he put in place because he likes somebody. When the owner writes scouting reports and hands them to the coaches to tell them what they should be doing, and that’s what you have in Carolina. You got a guy that made billions of dollars and now he thinks he knows football.” Schlereth said.

Last season, Young took 62 sacks and threw 10 interceptions and 11 touchdowns over 2,877 yards. The QB has played under three head coaches since: Frank Reich, Chris Tabor and now Dave Canales, who had a chat with his execs that led to the benching of Bryce Young. After a 0-2 start to the season, the Panthers decided to make Andy Dalton their starter.

Unlike the majority of NFL community, Dalton refrained from making any comments about Bryce Young and was just happy that he got the starting job as a journeyman QB. This isn’t about Bryce Young anymore because the problems in Carolina go way back when Tepper brought the team in 2018. We’ll discuss that in a minute. But before we do that, let’s look at some more things Schlereth said about Bryce Young. The statement is crude indeed.

“I don’t think Bryce Young will ever be a superstar in this league,” the former Broncos lineman said. “One, he’s tiny, it’s just doesn’t feel right, and he just is not ready to play quarterback at this level, okay.” However, Schlereth didn’t completely step over Young. He also pointed fingers at the Panthers organization, saying, “Some of it is where you get drafted and the players and the people you’re around.”

On that note, let’s come back to Tepper and see how the Panthers went hero to zero under his command.

How David Tepper’s Panthers became a laughingstock of the league

Tepper bought the team from Jerry Richardson in 2018 for a whopping $2.2 billion. The Panthers never had a winning season since Tepper took over. Last season, the Carolina team finished with an embarrassing 2-15 record and Young got the blame for most of it. Tepper had enough of Matt Rhule and fired him in 2022 after a 1-4 start. The job was then given to Steve Wilks, who got the team to 6-6.

The Panthers players wanted Wilks to stick around, but Tepper replaced him with Frank Reich in 2023, whom he fired after a 1-10 start to their season. Chris Tabor took the job as the interim HC and he was later replaced by Dave Canales, who is 0-2 in his tenure with the Panthers in the current season. But that’s not all.

The Panthers traded the WR DJ Moore, two first-round picks, two second round picks and a fourth-round pick to the Bears to get their hands on the no. 1 overall pick. Again, the Carolina team did all that, just to let CJ Stroud slip by. As Canales took over the HC job, he made a firm decision to keep Young at QB1 and later changed his decision in favor of Andy Dalton.

Surprising, before Tepper took over as the owner, the Panthers went 11-5. His decisions have set the Panther years behind and now it’s a long road to recovery from the botch. What do you think about Carolina’s decision to bench Bryce Young? Let us know.