Mel Kiper goes scorched earth on Panthers for benching Bryce Young

The Carolina Panthers are a prime example of how receiving PR isn't always a good thing. The team is 0-2 to start the 2024 season and are in the headlines this week for their decision to bench Bryce Young after head coach Dave Canales said he wouldn't do that.

The Panthers are a mess, plain and simple and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight as long as David Tepper owns the team. The team hasn't had a winning season since Tepper bought the Panthers in 2018 and now they're as bad as they've been under his ownership.

Well, let's throw someone else in who wants to rip the Panthers for their cluelessness and it's Mel Kiper Jr., who came to the rescue of Bryce Young in his latest rant. Kiper appeared on Get Up and was asked about the benching of Young.

Mel Kiper loses his mind over Panthers benching Bryce Young

Kiper starts his rant by noting that the Panthers mishandled this situation and reminds everyone that Young was always an outlier because of his size. He continues by saying that Young had some decent games last year and took down second-overall pick C.J. Stroud when the two went head-to-head.

This is when the Kiper rant heats up. He notes that the Panthers blew everything up because of how well C.J. Stroud played in Houston and thought that meant they needed to get rid of everyone because Young wasn't on the same level as Stroud.

Where Kiper really gets upset is when he discusses how the Panthers elected not to play Young in the preseason despite having a new head coach and staff surrounding him. "[The Panthers] play [Young] one series in the final preseason game against the AOGs. None of those guys are playing for Buffalo by the way. [The Panthers] went one series down the field and [the Panthers were thinking] 'Rah rah great we got it, we accomplished everything we wanted to'."

From there, Kiper points out that Stroud and Derek Carr played in two preseason games and notes that he used Carr as an example because he has a new offensive coordinator in New Orleans. Young also has a new offensive coordinator so why wasn't he playing more than just a series in the preseason?

These are fair points being made by Kiper. He recognizes that the former number one overall pick needs to sit behind Andy Dalton because "his confidence is shattered" but says this is not Young's fault. "To blame this on Bryce Young is ridiculous. [sic] The blame here goes to the organization."

Kiper can be annoying but he hit the nail on the head with his rant here. The Panthers fumbled the bag with Young big time and despite giving up a ton to draft him, it might be too late to fix the damage they've caused with their second-year quarterback.