Dave Canales: Give Bryce Young credit for improving through his benching

Panthers coach Dave Canales took a risk when he benched Bryce Young early last season, because a young quarterback can lose confidence from a benching. But that's not what happened with Young.

Canales said on PFT Live that Young did all the right things while Andy Dalton started last season, and that Young deserves an enormous amount of credit for how much better a quarterback he was when he returned to the starting lineup late in the season.

"I did not know how he was going to respond to that," Canales said of the benching. "What I knew was I needed to make the best decision for the Panthers at the time, and that's truly, I want to win this game, and I felt like Andy gave us the chance to win that game in Vegas, and we went week to week. I don't know if this model works, but I know it worked for Bryce. I know Bryce took the challenge, Bryce grew, he took every day as an opportunity. He never stopped leading through that whole time. He was working his teammates in the locker room, he was working the sideline during games, he was there as support for Andy while he was playing. He literally did not bow out. A lot of times you see these things happen and the quarterback all of a sudden starts to retreat. He just stayed available and was consistent with his teammates and kept working on his craft until he got his next opportunity. So I have to give Bryce all the credit."

Now the Panthers are heading into Year Three of Young's career thinking they have their franchise quarterback. Something not many people would have said at the time that Young was benched.