Panthers Benching Bryce Young for Andy Dalton

What They're Saying

HC Dave Canales, when asked after the loss to the Chargers if he has considered making a QB switch: "Bryce is our quarterback. I'd love to see this thing just continue to take the next steps offensively right now."

Canales, later in the same media session, when asked if Young would start Week 3: "Bryce is our quarterback. We're gonna just continue to shore up and fix the things we need to—fundamentally, from a scheme standpoint, all those things. These are all valuable reps, these are all valuable games, we’ll learn a lot from this game and hopefully we’ll take another step this week."

2024 Fantasy Football Impact

Those words from Canales just a day before this reported action make you wonder if the switch is being directed by someone other than the HC.

Whatever the case, we applaud the move around here. Young has been terrible through two games, showing no signs of progress and arguably even looking worse than he did as a rookie.

Young followed a career-worst passer rating in Week 1 with a career-low 84 passing yards in the loss to the Chargers.

Rather than keep chasing sunk cost, the Panthers look wise to turn to Dalton. Sure, he's a limited 36-year-old. But he has also had a pretty good NFL career that includes:

• 62.5% completion rate
• 4.5% TD rate
• 2.6% INT rate
• 7.1 yards per attempt to Young's 5.4

Even Dalton's lone start for the Panthers to date found him throwing for 361 yards and 2 TDs in a loss at Seattle last season.

The QB switch offers fantasy hope to Carolina pass-catchers -- though it's not quite enough to immediately vault them up our Week 3 rankings.

We'll see how the Dalton-led offense fares at Las Vegas and go from there.

Dynasty Impact

Getting benched less than a quarter of the way into your second season certainly doesn't bode well for a young QB's future.

Unfortunately, you don't have much to do with Young in dynasty right now but wait and pray for a rebound.

Other Winners & Losers

WR Diontae Johnson and WR Adam Thielen were the only Carolina pass-catchers who topped 55% route participation in Sunday's loss.

Both will certainly "win" if Dalton plays any better than Young has (which seems likely).

How usable either will be in fantasy lineups will depend on just how much better Dalton plays.

Waiver Wire Targets

Dalton immediately becomes an obvious target for superflex and 2-QB waiver runs this week. Whether to drop Young for him depends on your roster depth.