To put things nicely, the Carolina Panthers have appeared quite lost early on in the 2024-25 NFL season, which ultimately led to the team deciding to bench former No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young in favor of Andy Dalton for the team’s Week 3 game. And according to former Miami Marlins team president David Samson, you don’t have to look far to find where that decision, and the team’s struggles as a whole come from.
Samson, who is now a frequent guest on the Dan Le Batard Show, discussed the Panthers’ struggles during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show on Wednesday. He didn’t mince words, unleashing on Panthers owner David Tepper, even joking that Tepper has made the Marlins ownership group look good.
“David Tepper is firing coaches because he is the most metalling owner,” Samson told Eisen. “He has finally made our ownership group look so good. Which is, I mean, how hard is that?”
Eisen then asked whether Samson has a relationship with Tepper that caused him to make these comments. Samson responded by saying that he didn’t and is simply acknowledging how poorly the organization is run.
“No, that’s why it’s nothing personal,” Samson added. “He may be the greatest guy in the world. I’m saying, going through and cycling through… And the whole thing with Bryce Young was priceless. The coach said ‘Oh he wasn’t involved’. Could you imagine? You think the coach went to the owner and said ‘You know what, yesterday I said he’s my guy. But I went to bed, had some dreams, I woke up this morning and now he’s not my guy. I want Andy Dalton. Dave, is there any chance you’ll let me do that?’
“Come on… I’ve seen an owner do that. Our owner did it. He’s not the only owner that does this. Owners get involved, but they only want to get credit when things work. When things don’t work, they say hey, we weren’t involved. He’s embarrassed, he looks at his team, he reads… Owners read stuff, they watch your show, they pay attention to things that often people in the front office aren’t paying attention to. So he’s quite embarrassed as he should be. So you can’t picture him going in after that game and saying that’s it?”
Who ultimately made the call in Carolina to bench 2nd-year QB Bryce Young?@DavidPSamson thinks it’s pretty obvious:#NFL #KeepPounding pic.twitter.com/5NvfSjQKUh
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) September 19, 2024
At this point, there is no concrete evidence that Tepper was indeed the one who made the decision to bench Young. But as Samson alluded to, it is quite strange that Panthers head coach Dave Canales publically said after the team’s Week 2 loss that Young was their quarterback, only for Young to be benched less than 24 hours later.
It sure seems like someone above Canales made the call to have Young benched. And considering all of the struggles the Panthers have had in recent years, Samson may be entirely correct that Tepper was behind the move.
