Report: Bryce Young benching “should be viewed as a break”

Yes, dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. And the currently dysfunctional Panthers are taking a page from the recently dysfunctional Jets.

Carolina is spreading the word that the benching of quarterback Bryce Young will be temporary.

That’s the Sunday Splash! from the media outlet partially owned by the Panthers. The benching, per the report, “should be viewed as a break.”

The Jets did the same thing with Zach Wilson two years ago. And it didn’t work.

It won’t work here, either. Two games into the season, Young is out. So he’ll be back in later? Why give up on him now?

For some teams, the benching might be a nod to the will of the locker room. Elsewhere, it’s the coach’s call. With the Panthers, we know from experience that owner David Tepper’s spoon is the biggest and deepest in the stew.

Regardless, the idea that sitting Young down with the idea that he’ll be back later is the kind of move made by teams that don’t know what they’re doing, or how to do it.

Or maybe it’s just a clumsy effort to generate trade leverage. To argue that they haven’t decided to move on from him. To pretend that they fully intend to keep him around in the hopes he’ll become Carolina’s franchise quarterback.

Panthers fans should hope that’s what happening. Because if the Panthers genuinely believe the best way to groom the No. 1 overall pick is to bench him after two regular-season games and then re-insert him into the fray at a later date, the organization has far bigger problems than previously realized.