Bryce Young had won at every level of football he’d ever played.
From being one of the most decorated high school quarterbacks to come out of California, to becoming a Heisman Trophy winner and national champion at Alabama, winning wasn’t just something Young did — it was part of his identity.
For most of his life, the story had been linear: prepare, perform, succeed. Then he got to the NFL and walked into a situation that was anything but stable with the Carolina Panthers.
Appearing this week on The Pivot with Ryan Clark, Young opened up about the day that identity was tested in a way it never had been before — the day he learned he’d been benched after Week 2 of his second season.
After a rookie year that saw Carolina win just two games under first-year head coach Frank Reich, Young entered the following offseason determined to stabilize what had been a chaotic environment. New staff. New terminology. New expectations. He’d spent months trying to establish leadership and command of the offense in hopes that Year 2 would be where things finally started to settle.
He also had another new head coach and staff to learn in Dave Canales. Frank Reich didn't even make it one year as head coach the previous season.
Bryce Young's first year, he got sacked 62 times which is tied for 7th most in NFL history. David Carr still holds the record at 76 sacks in 2003. It's not the most sacks ever, but it's close enough to leave some trama.
You could tell with the way Bryce was playing, he was playing conservatively and a little scared based on the ghosts of the following year. He shouldn't have been because the offensive line was heavily improved with the addition of Robert Hunt, but when you have trauma from the past, it doesn't matter.
Just two weeks into the season, he was called into the office and informed he would no longer be the starting quarterback. Andy Dalton got the nod.
And then he drove.
Young told Clark that after the meeting, he got in his car that night and just started moving with no real destination in mind. “I just dove around. I didn’t want to go home… I put Atlanta in my GPS.”, Bryce said.
He added that he didn't really plan to go to Atlanta, but he just had no sense of what was up and what was down. We've all been there.
What's funny about that, though, Atlanta would later become the backdrop for his response. In the four meetings that followed against the Falcons, Young delivered some of his best performances — consistently picking apart a division rival that unknowingly sat at the center of one of the lowest moments of his professional life.
Later that season, when Andy Dalton was sidelined following a car accident, Young got another opportunity. Maybe he wouldn’t have otherwise — we’ll never know. But the way he responded over the final two months of that year told you everything you needed to know about who he was becoming.
And what he became this season was a winner again.
Young helped lead Carolina to eight wins, an NFC South title, and went toe-to-toe with a Super Bowl favorite in Los Angeles Rams during a narrow Wild Card loss that required Matthew Stafford to engineer a late 71-yard drive just to survive.
He’s not the biggest quarterback in the league. He’s not going to carry a roster on his back the way a few rare talents can.
But he is the leader this locker room needs.
And with the right pieces finally beginning to take shape around him, Carolina may be much closer than people think to attacking the league in a big way next season.