Panthers Owner David Tepper’s Choice of Bryce Young over CJ Stroud Haunts Team as Rookie Struggles

Bryce Young was playing against Ole Miss and LSU for Alabama. Even though his performance last year in college football was not a Heisman Trophy performance, he earned the right to be the first overall pick of the NFL Draft in 2023. Tyson Bagent, on the other hand, has never lifted a Heisman Trophy. Yet, if you asked someone new to football watching the Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers game, he’d definitely say Bagent was the better QB.

And Bagent wasn’t even drafted. He made it to the Bears as a backup. A lot of bad decisions were made by the Panthers in last year’s draft. The most important one among them was picking Bryce Young. With Young at the helm, the Carolina Panthers are 1-8 after 9 games. And it doesn’t look like the situation is going to improve.

Bryce makes the Panthers regret picking him with his latest performance

The Bears were 2-7, while the Panthers were 1-7. Close enough that the match could swing either way. But then the Bears ended up winning 16-13. And their QB didn’t have the Vince Lombardi-equivalent of college football to boast of. Dov Kleinman, who writes for ESPN, took to X to share that the rookie QB should be benched for his own good. “He’s clearly not ready. Maybe sitting and learning from watching for a few games will do him good.”

Statistically speaking, Young is the worst QB this season. He has a QB rating of 30 and 5.5 yards per attempt. Both those numbers place him at the bottom of the season’s QB rankings. His touchdown-interception ratio is 8-7, which is the 25th in the league. The Carolina Panthers seem like a lost cause. But they don’t even have next year’s Draft to look forward to as they made a fatal mistake this year.

Two mistakes that could cost the Panthers next year as well

Even if the Panthers finish last this season and hence get to pick first in the NFL Draft 2024, that will do them no good. They had traded their pick with the Bears to get to pick first in the NFL Draft 2023. Ahead of the 2023 Draft, Adam Schefter of ESPN had reported that Panthers owner David Tepper “loves” Alabama’s Bryce Young, while Head Coach Frank Reich “likes” Ohio State’s CJ Stroud.

But when it was time to act, Panthers owner Tepper won, and hence Young joined the Panthers. They made the fatal mistake of passing on CJ Stroud.

Read More: Rookie CJ Stroud Declares All Athletes Want to Be Baseball Players; Is It Really True for Every American?

While Young has 8 passing TDs so far, Stroud has 14. While Young has recorded 1,560 passing yards, Stroud has 2,270. In the 5 games that Stroud has led for the Houston Texans, he helped them win 2. Young, on the other hand, has only 1 victory to show for 5 games. Is it game over for the Panthers, or can they turn around their fortunes mid-season?

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