Giants Should Take a Flier on Bryce Young

The big news that shocked the NFL world this week was the Carolina Panthers opting to bench 2023 No. 1 overall pick, QB Bryce Young, after only two games ahead of their Week 3 matchup at the Las Vegas Raiders.

Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising, since Young has had three head coaches in two years so far in the NFL and has made no improvement since his rookie year and may have even gotten worse.

According to Bill Barnwell of ESPN, when Carolina had at least a 10% chance of winning a game last season, according to the ESPN win probability metric, Young had a 34.3 QBR and 4.2 yards per dropback, which were the worst in the league for qualifying quarterbacks. This season in those same situations, Young has a 1.4 QBR and averages 1.1 yards per dropback. Nobody has played worse in non-garbage time situations for an extended period of time. The only QB with a sub-20 QBR in those situations that qualified for a passing title was former Carolina draft pick Jimmy Clausen in 2010.

While the Panthers have said publicly that they have no interest in moving on from Young, the writing is on the wall that the Bryce Young era in Carolina may be over. Adam Schefter of ESPN has said that it is all but over for Young in Carolina and they would most likely move on in the offseason. This now begs the question after the Giants traded with Carolina for DE Brian Burns: should the Giants take a flier on Young after this season?

Big Blue has an out from Daniel Jones' contract after this season, which is looking more and more likely. Young is an affordable option as he is still in the second year of his rookie contract. Young has a cap hit of just $8.6m this year, $10.3m in 2025 and $12m in 2026. This would still allow New York to take him onto their books while also drafting a QB in the 2025 draft. Given how the season has started off, the Giants may again have a high draft pick and can take a top QB like Carson Beck from Georgia, Dillon Gabriel of Oregon, Shedeur Sanders of Colorado, or someone else.

In all likelihood, Carolina would not have the leverage in the possible return for Young given his height concerns and severe struggles early in his career. However, it is worth noting that the Arizona Cardinals received a second-round pick for Josh Rosen after only one season and Jacksonville got a fourth-rounder for Nick Foles from Chicago.

What it comes down to for the Giants is if you can get away with a late-round pick, then they should go for it. If Carolina wants a second-round pick, then they should pass because in all likelihood they will have a high pick in the second round and have other needs to tend to.

At the end of the day, the book is not closed on Young’s career in the NFL, but it appears closed in Carolina. There have been examples of high draft picks at the QB position who failed at first but have found a home elsewhere. Sam Darnold had a brutal start to his career with the Jets and then bounced around to Carolina and San Francisco before finding what appears to be a home so far this season in Minnesota. Another example is Baker Mayfield going first overall to Cleveland and then moving around to Carolina and the Los Angeles Rams before signing a long-term deal with Tampa Bay.

The question Big Blue will have to answer is whether they believe Bryce Young could be better than Daniel Jones. I would say given that he is a cheaper option and played in a tougher conference in college at Alabama in the SEC, it is worth the gamble if the return price is reasonable.

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