Sunday’s game was another painful reminder for the Carolina Panthers of how poorly they handled the trade for Bryce Young in 2023 and how much it has hurt the team.
Caleb Williams threw for 304 yards and two touchdowns—both to former Panthers wide receiver D.J. Moore—as the Bears defeated the Panthers 36-10 in Chicago.
Moore was part of the trade where the Panthers also sent four draft picks to the Bears to move up to the No. 1 overall pick to get a franchise quarterback. Instead of selecting C.J. Stroud, who went No. 2 overall to the Houston Texans and has found quick success, the Panthers chose Young, and it has been a mess ever since.
Young’s record as an NFL starter is 2-16, and he was benched just two games into the Dave Canales era for 36-year-old Andy Dalton, a veteran backup.
On the other hand, Williams showed great pocket awareness in the best game of his early career. He was picked No. 1 overall in this year’s draft, a selection the Bears got from the Panthers after Carolina ended last season with the worst record in the NFL at 2-15.
The Bears also gained offensive tackle Darnell Wright and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson—both of whom are now starting—as well as punter Tory Taylor from that trade, which could haunt the Panthers for years.
Even more troubling is that it looks like the Panthers may not have needed to make the trade at all if they could have developed their own quarterback.
The Panthers had previously traded for Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, both former top-three draft picks, in efforts to strengthen the quarterback position.
Both players are now doing well with their new teams.
Darnold has the undefeated Minnesota Vikings (5-0) leading the NFC North. Mayfield, after helping the Buccaneers reach the playoffs last year, has thrown 11 touchdowns and only two interceptions this season.
The Panthers (1-4), on the other hand, look likely to miss the playoffs for the seventh year in a row, and their quarterback situation remains unclear.
The excitement from the victory with Dalton against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3 has quickly faded, and the Panthers find themselves back where they started: a struggling team coming off another blowout loss.
Dalton will stay as the starter moving forward.
The Panthers are not a deep team, and injuries have stopped any momentum from that win in Vegas.
They had already lost defensive end Derrick Brown, linebacker Shaq Thompson, and wide receiver Adam Thielen—three of their top players—to injuries before Sunday, with Brown and Thompson out for the season.
On Sunday, things got worse as five more players were injured: center Austin Corbett (torn biceps), right tackle Taylor Moton (triceps), outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney (shoulder), wide receiver Xavier Legette (shoulder), and tight end Tommy Tremble (concussion).
Corbett will be out for the rest of the season, and Moton is expected to miss a few weeks, according to Canales.
At the end of Sunday’s game, Canales took Dalton out because he was getting hit in the pocket without two starting linemen.
Young came in with his team down by 26 for his first chance to play since being benched, serving as a painful reminder for the Panthers of how badly they were taken advantage of by the Bears in what could be one of the most unbalanced trades in NFL history.
