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When Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales benched Bryce Young three games into the 2024 season, he received a heap of criticism from the media and fans. However, once Young regained the job in Week 8, he turned his entire career around to suddenly become one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL.
Canales appeared to be as impressed as most fans were by Young’s 180-degree career turn. Canales recalled the exact moment he began to see the change in Young’s mentality in his first game back as the starter during his appearance on Sirius XM NFL Radio.
“I gotta just give all the credit to Bryce handling [the benching] the way that he did,” Canales said. “With maturity, attacking it, and really positioning himself for that next opportunity [despite] not knowing when that opportunity was going to come… [He found] the joy of playing again. I could sense that when we went out to Denver. We didn’t win that game, but he threw some balls with confidence. He was having fun.”
"He just took steps every week." @Panthers HC Dave Canales discussed how impressed he was by the way QB Bryce Young responded this year.
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— SiriusXM NFL Radio (@SiriusXMNFL) January 31, 2025
After Young started the first two games of 2024, veteran Andy Dalton started the Panthers’ next five games. A freak car accident temporarily sidelined Dalton in Week 8, which allowed Young to return to the lineup and kickstart his career resurgence.
“It was just like I could see the shift in him, and then he just took steps every week,” Canales said. “Diving into the game plan and applying those things. It was really cool to be a part of.”
Young ended 2024 with 2,403 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He led the team to a 4-5 finish over its final 10 weeks, which was the franchise’s best run in years. The Panthers’ late-year surge included three single-score losses to eventual playoff teams as significant betting underdogs.
The numbers from Young’s sophomore campaign are not impressive but do not tell the whole story. Through the first seven weeks of the season, his touchdown-interception ratio was 0:3. But from Week 8 to Week 18 — when he re-emerged as the starting quarterback – his ratio vastly improved to 15:6. Over the final three weeks, Young threw seven touchdowns without a single interception.
Statistically, Young’s numbers regressed from his rookie campaign. However, two games into 2024, he was widely seen as one of the biggest quarterback busts in recent history. Yet, by the end of the year, he fully flipped his public perception and is now seen as the potential franchise quarterback he was viewed as ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft. Few quarterbacks have ever turned their career trajectory as quickly as Young did in 2024.
The post [Panthers’ Dave Canales explains...
