Eighteen starts into his NFL career, quarterback Bryce Young has been benched.
So what’s next?
It’s hard to know with certainty, because it’s never easy for rational minds to predict with any accuracy the behavior of the irrational. Or, as the case may be, the dysfunctional.
Presumably, Young is done. Barring injury to new starter Andy Dalton. There’s no other current in-house option, other than Jack Plummer, who’s on the practice squad.
Maybe this is a Zach Wilson-style breather. More likely, it’s the product of the whimsy of owner David Tepper, whose fingerprints are on every decision made and/or cup containing each drink thrown.
Tepper, by all appearances, fell in love with Young. Now, Tepper has fallen out of love with him. Tepper could still fall in love with him again.
Or Tepper could prevent that by trading Young — if someone would trade for him. He’s making $915,000 in salary this year. He has $10.125 million in fully-guaranteed pay for 2025 and 2026.
Would Miami make sense, if Tua Tagovailoa would be out for the rest of the year? Beyond the Dolphins, there aren’t many obvious choices, for now.
If nothing materializes before the deadline (which is seven weeks away), the question becomes whether the Panthers would trade him in the offseason to one of the teams who had him above C.J. Stroud in the 2023 draft (and, no, the Panthers weren’t alone).
This all assumes that Tepper won’t change his mind, again, at some point before the end of the season. Tepper wants what he wants when he wants it, and one of the benefits of being in charge is that he can change his mind. And un-change it. And re-change it.
