Bryce Young’s season — and NFL career — have gone in just about the exact opposite direction he wanted it to go.
Now, after getting benched following a Week 2 Panthers loss, he’s hearing it from all sides about just how bad he’s been.
Stephen A. Smith has not surprisingly joined the chorus of talking heads ripping the young quarterback, but he went a step further, saying Young has been worse than most infamous NFL draft busts.
Speaking on Tuesday’s “First Take” on ESPN, Smith said Young just might have had a worse start to his career than former Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell.
“It’s been an unmitigated disaster,” Smith said before ratting off a number of statistics in which Young was ranked at or near the bottom in among the league’s signal-callers.
“Ladies and gentlemen, JaMarcus Russell wasn’t even that bad,” Smith added. “And you know how I felt about JaMarcus Russell. This is maybe the biggest bust in NFL history. These are the things that are started to be brought up.”
Russell was the No. 1 pick by the Raiders in 2007 but played just three seasons in the league before he was out of the NFL completely.
Much like Russell, Young was the No. 1 pick in 2023, selected ahead of C.J. Stroud, who went on to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
After an abysmal rookie year, Young started this season with an 0-2 record, completing just 55.4 percent of his passes with three interceptions and no touchdowns.
Pro Football Focus has graded him out at 30.1 in what has been nothing short of a disaster for Carolina, which would’ve selected first in this year’s draft — had they not traded their 2024 first-round pick in order to select Young in 2023.
The Panthers will start veteran Andy Dalton in Week 3 as the Panthers try to get into the win column, fittingly enough, against the Raiders.
“This is something after I watched the film, I looked at it, had a thought, started working on talking to the guys that we make decisions with. Certainly a lot of parties involved there,” head coach Dave Canales told reporters Monday.
“Ultimately, this comes on me, and my No. 1 responsibility is to help the Panthers win. And so this move, I believe, puts us in the best chance to do that this week.”