Rex Ryan, Randy Moss and the remainder of ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” crew didn’t hold back while obliterating the winless Panthers — who’ve benched starting quarterback and 2023 No.1 overall draft pick Bryce Young — during this week’s pregame show.
Moss called Carolina “the laughingstock of the league,” while Ryan said the Panthers’ hiring of coach Dave Canales has been a “disaster,” including replacing Young with veteran Andy Dalton for Sunday’s game against the Raiders.
“I remember being on this league where the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders were the laughingstock of the National Football League. After which it got here with the Cleveland Browns. At once, the laughingstock of the National Football League is the Carolina Panthers,” Moss said. “And it’s not due to how they’re playing. It’s all the things from ownership all the way in which down.”
The Panthers are off to an 0-2 start after ending 2-15 one yr ago, but they included what would have been the No. 1 overall pick on this yr’s draft and wide receiver D.J. Moore to trade as much as draft Young out of Alabama in 2023.
“This organization is a disaster. You can not pay me enough money to go play for the Carolina Panthers straight away,” former NFL quarterback Alex Smith added. “The concept of a company is to build up talent, not give it away. We trade Christian McCaffery. We trade away D.J. Moore. Bryan Burns, like, let’s just give away our greatest players.
“They do not know discover talent and keep it. And oh, by the way in which, Baker Mayfield had a stop here, he wasn’t ok. Sam Darnold was here, he wasn’t ok. I pray that Bryce gets out of there…Word is out, no person desires to go there.”
Ryan, the previous coach of the Jets, said he knew the hiring of Canales, who was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers, wouldn’t work out.
“From Week 1, I actually questioned the hiring of Dave Canales as the pinnacle coach,” Ryan said. “And the explanation I did, and I’m sure a part of it’s he’s the quarterback guru or the quarterback fixer or whatever.
“Yeah. Let me let you know something a couple of young quarterback. the way you fix him once they’re struggling? They’re gonna struggle, right? With a running game and a defense. That’s the way you do it. The funny thing is, so I herald Dave Canales, he was dead-last in Tampa, dead-last in rushing the football and rushing per attempt. And that’s who you set in there to assist this guy? I knew it was going to be a disaster. I believed it was the worst hire ever. I actually did. For that child’s development, I believed it was terrible. This has gone exactly how I believed it could go.”
Ryan added that he “questioned” the pick of Young — who was chosen one pick ahead of current Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud — “because this can be a size and speed league.”
“But you recognize what? You possibly can’t query that child,” Ryan continued. “He had all the opposite intangibles. He never had the dimensions, but he’s smart, he knew deliver the ball. And so they weren’t the one team that wanted him.
“By the way in which, they didn’t originally have the primary pick within the draft. They traded up for that pick, so for me, that team right there, by the way in which, used to give you the option to play defense until they traded the team away. I’m sorry, it was a horrible hire, you’ve undergone 1,000,000 coaches, and you continue to don’t have it right.”
Several teams reportedly have already got expressed interest in trading for the 23-year-old Young, and former NFL linebacker Tedy Bruschi said he hopes that comes true.
“I’ll play again later this yr, but I would like out. If I’m Bryce, I would like out,” Bruschi said. “Since you messed me up, you’re not properly developed. I’m sure he’s got a team [interested], and I might advise him to get out.”
