Bryce Young shares emotional reaction to Panthers benching in 2024

Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

Two years ago Bryce Young experienced one of the lowest moment of his football career when he was benched by the Carolina Panthers just a few games into his second season. Under new head coach Dave Canales, the team turned to veteran Andy Dalton to replace a struggling Young.

After being selected as the No. 1 overall pick, Young had a disastrous start to his career filled with front office and coaching staff dysfunction which led to his underperformance.

Young had never truly opened up about the fallout from when the Panthers were seemingly moving on from him until he appeared on The Pivot Podcast on Monday to detail his emotional response to learning he wouldn’t be starting.

“That was a place I’d never been at before,” Young said. “Obviously, not something that I was, you know, you’re expecting. You never think things could go that way, turn out that way. So in the moment, obviously, it was a lot. It was hard. It was really difficult at that time. Obviously, you’re working through the emotions in real time.

“Honestly, I drove around. Like, I didn’t want to go back home. Like, I just drove for, like, hours, and I didn’t know where I was going. I put Atlanta in my GPS. Like, I knew I wasn’t going to go all the way to Atlanta. But I was just, like, I didn’t know what was up, what was down in that time.

“And as I was driving, trying to, like, clear my mind. I made a conscious decision to challenge myself to be as consistent as I could be during that time and to grow from it. And that was hard. Like, I had a lot of, you know, I’m human. I was upset. I was confused. I was mad at myself, mad at others, like whatever. I had those emotions. And at that time, I’m like, one, I want to challenge myself to be the same person. Like, I don’t want this to change my personality. I don’t want to show up to work with bad energy. I don’t want to be a bad teammate. I’m going to be very conscious to be the same person. But, yeah, being benched, again, I had no experience with that, so it was a, yeah, definitely humbling experience.”

Young would ultimately regain the starting role after Dalton sustained an injury later that season and would not hand the job back. The momentum he gained would be carried into 2025 as well, where Young and Canales combined to be a formidable duo with far more consistent results that years past.

Young ultimately led the Panthers to its first playoff appearance since 2017 where it narrowly lost to the Los Angeles Rams 38-35.

Now that he’s on the other side of a rocky second season and with the Panthers picking up his fifth year option, Young views the initial benching as a blessing and major learning lesson.

“Faith-wise, it was really big for me,” Young said. “I’ve always been a believer. I’ve always had faith. I’ve always had a, you know, walk with God. But I think that it was a blessing to be able to have to experience it. I’ve had a lot of, as far as football goes, I’ve been very blessed career-wise up until, you know, at that point it was, like, it was kind of all positive. And then, you know, it took a quick turn.

“And I’d always, you know, I trust in God. I believe whatever it is, I always give it up to him. But that was one of the first times in a professional sense that I had no choice. I think that wasn’t an accident. Like, I think God put me there to know that, you know, the faith is real, for me to strengthen my faith, really, for me to be able to experience God in a different way. I am super grateful for that.”

*Get the BEST Alabama football insider information, message board access, and recruiting coverage today! SIGN UP HERE to unlock our subscriber only content!*

Patrick Dowd is a Reporter for Touchdown Alabama Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter, via Pat_Dowd77