Despite Bryce Young’s disastrous rookie campaign, the Carolina Panthers are not going to take Craig Carton’s advice by moving their quarterback to slot receiver.
Five days removed from the Super Bowl, national sports shows have already started previewing next season. Those previews saw Colin Cowherd make the bold claim that the Washington Commanders will win the NFC East, and Craig Carton offer a scathing assessment Bryce Young.
“Bryce Young is not an NFL quarterback and he NEVER ever ever will be.”
— @craigcartonlive pic.twitter.com/vM9Jh9CCCq
— The Carton Show (@TheCartonShow) February 16, 2024
“Bryce Young, at 5 foot 2m cannot be a successful quarterback in the NFL,” Carton said. “This is why I said back in April of a year ago that C.J. Stroud was the obvious No. 1 pick, and if you took Bryce Young, you were making a mistake. And you can check the tapes, I said it.”
We checked the tapes, and Carton did kind of say that. Before the NFL Draft last year, Carton frequently mocked Young’s size, predicting Stroud would and should be the No. 1 overall pick by the Carolina Panthers.
“As great as he was in college, as smart as he is, as athletic as he is, he’s not an NFL quarterback,” Carton continued Friday morning on his FS1 show. “He’s like a third-down specialty back or maybe, maybe a slot receiver on third and two. He’s not an NFL quarterback. He will never have great success in the NFL, and he was one of the worst picks a team has ever made in the history of the NFL while picking number one.”
This feels more like needling than it does actual analysis, the way Bill Polian infamously claimed Lamar Jackson would make a better wide receiver than quarterback ahead of the 2018 NFL Draft. Jackson, of course, has since won two NFL MVP awards as a quarterback, making Polian’s take seem like one of the worst pieces of pre-draft analysis in league history.
Young’s rookie season was terrible, and that was underscored by Stroud being so successful in Houston. But slot receiver? That seems unnecessarily insulting after one year on a terrible team and dysfunctional franchise to spark some outrage.
“He is not an NFL quarterback and he never, ever, ever will be,” Carton said of Young. “Take the tape, put it in a box, put it in the little Carton Show safe for next football season.”
Allow me to be the first to take the bait and stash Craig Carton comparing Bryce Young to a slot receiver away for later use.
