Thankfully, Andy Dalton and his family are safe after a Tuesday car accident, although Dalton sprained the thumb on his right throwing hand in the collision and won’t play this week.
As Carolina (1-6) prepares to visit Denver (4-3) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS), Dalton’s accident actually has opened a window of opportunity for both the Panthers and Bryce Young.
Young returns to the starting role for the first time since Week 2, when head coach Dave Canales demoted the quarterback prior to a win at Las Vegas. Even before Dalton’s accident, Charlotte Observer columnist Scott Fowler thought allowing Young to start at least twice more this season was a good idea.
“If you’re going to trade him, his value would have a chance of going up if he played a good game,” Fowler said on the Processing Blue podcast earlier in the week. “If people saw that, that’s maybe a long shot, but at least something.”
The other benefit to playing Young now, Fowler said, is to provide game film to help the Panthers make better decisions with regard to their future at quarterback. Dalton turns 37 on Tuesday and he’s eligible for free agency in March.
“You’ve got to figure this quarterback thing out,” Fowler added. “Yeah, Andy Dalton probably gives you a better chance of winning games. And after two games, I thought it was fine to switch it up. But now, I think it’s time to switch it up again because the Panthers are a lost cause. Their defense is so bad that outside of Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, you probably can’t win games with that defense right now.”
That defense (385.7 yards allowed per game) ranks 30th in the league, noticeably affected by the season-ending knee injury to defensive end Derrick Brown.
But Brown is expected to recover and contribute in 2025, and the Panthers see him as a big part of their future. And don’t expect Young or other players to change teams before the Nov. 5 trade deadline because, unlike the Titans, Carolina has an estimated $45 million of cap space entering next season. They’re also jockeying with the Titans for another high first-round draft choice.
And when the Panthers trade Young, or even if they keep him on their roster into 2025, the game at Denver is important. Showing how the young quarterback has responded to such an unprecedented move so early in his career can only benefit everyone involved.
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