Dave Canales still sounds like he'd rather have Andy Dalton starting over Bryce Young

Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales gave an interesting answer to a question from ESPN.

Nov 24, 2024; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (9) is congratulated by quarterback Andy Dalton (14) after his touchdown drive against the Kansas City Chiefs during the second half at Bank of America Stadium. / Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

The ball bounces in funny and unpredictable ways, and nobody really knows where it'll go next. That's true of life the same as football, and the 2024 Carolina Panthers are a prime example of it. Right now it looks like Bryce Young has turned his career around and is well on his way towards being Carolina's franchise quarterback of the future, just as they'd hoped when they picked him at number one overall in the 2023 NFL draft. A couple months ago this was far from a foregone conclusion, and if not for a twist of fate Young might still be languishing on the sidelines, watching veteran Andy Dalton lead the Panthers instead.

It certainly seems that way based on head coach Dave Canales' comments throughout the season, and his seeming preference for Dalton shone through agan yesterday when he was asked about Young's unforeseen opportunity to get back into the lineup thanks to Dalton's car crash and thumb injury. Here's what he told ESPN, per Mike Kay at the Observer.

Dave Canales on QB opportunities

"Yeah, it would have been really interesting and fortunately, we got the opportunity. Bryce got the opportunity he did. And on the other side of it, I was pulling for Andy at the time, too, who was building some weeks. He had a rough couple weeks, and was like 'Okay, here we go. Let's get this thing back on track.' It's two stories and that's life. Bryce made the most of his opportunities and here we are. Just the weekly growth, took another step in a postitive direction against a really good team. That's where we're at, we're week to week. Here we go against the Cowboys and we'll have to lock back in."

We may be reading into Canales' words a little, but the fact that he still hasn't named Young Carolina's starting quarterback for the rest of the season and is still doing the week-to-week thing proves that Canales is not sold on Young despite his recent uptick. That Canales recently told reporters that he's curious about Dalton's long-term viability is another clear sign.

For whatever reason he can't seem to see it, but the 37-year old Dalton has no long-term viability. He looked sharp in two games early this season, but that came against two of the worst defensive teams in the league. As soon as Dalton faced a formidable defense his performance dropped to an unacceptable level, and stayed there. Putting Young back in the lineup was well-justfied at least two weeks prior to the thumb injury Dalton suffered - and even if Dalton had been thriving it made more sense in the long run to give Young another chance.

At this point we're not sure what Young has to do to win over his head coach the way he has most Panthers fans. All he can do is keep putting quality starts on tape and hope his teammates start coming through for him so his stats and win/loss record will improve.

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