Paul Finebaum destroys Panthers over Bryce Young: Would have screwed up Mahomes too

The Carolina Panthers are 0-2 with the worst point differential in the NFL by a country mile. It has been bad all around, with silver linings few and far between for the reigning last-place team. Bryce Young, the No. 1 pick a year ago, has once again struggled, completing just 55.4 percent of his passes and throwing three interceptions, compared to zero touchdowns.

A change was imminent and now it has arrived. Carolina will bench Young in favor of the veteran Andy Dalton, a signal from the coaching staff that Young just is not ready to lead this team. That is undeniably the case; Young has spent the majority of his time running around like an animal caught in a trap, trying in vain to escape the consistently mounting pressure applied by opposing defenses. It is, however, fair to wonder if Dalton will perform any better. The O-line still sucks, Dalton is limited on the mobility front at 36, and the Panthers' pass-catching corps leaves much to be desired.

What Dalton can and will do better than Young, however, is stand tall in the pocket and deliver passes under duress. Young's size has been a constant talking point since arriving in the NFL, and not without reason. We have see shorter QBs make it before, but Young is struggling to locate a full field of vision with the pocket in a constant state of collapse. It's fair to wonder about the arm strength, too, and Young's decision-making has been far more erratic than Carolina fans expected, even when accounting for the personnel issues in his orbit.

All that said, it should be fascinating to see how different the Panthers look with a more established signal-caller in the mix. Meanwhile, Young's future comes into sharp focus for the Panthers and the rest of the NFL. As a former No. 1 pick, he's bound to get a second chance. Where, however, is the question.

Paul Finebaum added his two cents in a recent appearance on ESPN's Get Up.

Paul Finebaum claims Panthers would have messed up Patrick Mahomes, not just Bryce Young

That is a scalding-hot take that just about everyone can get behind. Obviously, Patrick Mahomes comes with a much better mechanism for evading pressure and finding unique angles to deliver the football. It is, however, interesting to ponder if Mahomes would have developed that mechanism so successfully in Carolina, dealing with constant, unrelenting pressure from the word 'go.'

Mahomes is a one-man argument in favor of keeping your rookie QB on the bench in year one. Alex Smith functioned as the starter and mentor in Mahomes' rookie season. The Kansas City Chiefs were able to slowly bring Mahomes up to speed, working through his early-career stumbles — few and far between as they were — with one of the best supporting casts in football around him.

I'm willing to say that Mahomes probably doesn't win MVP in his first starting campaign with the Panthers. He probably gets to something approximating his current, historic level eventually — the greats generally find a way — but there's no chance the process is as smooth as it was in Kansas City. Heck, there's a non-zero chance it would take a mid-career relocation to fully unlock Mahomes.

Young has been punching upward since the Panthers called his name on draft night. His limitations are compounded by the utter incompetence around him. It's one thing to have a young quarterback who's still working to master the speed, size, and physicality of professional football. It's another issue entirely to hang him out to dry behind the NFL's worst offensive line, without much of a run game or pass-catching corps for him to lean on.

Maybe Young figures this out, but it's fair to be more than a little concerned at this point. More than that, it is completely fair to pin some — maybe even most — of the blame on the organization that drafted him.