The Carolina Panthers have no one to blame but themselves for how things played out with Bryce Young ... so says former No. 2 overall pick Ryan Leaf, who tells TMZ Sports the entire organization is a complete mess -- and he's hoping the quarterback gets the hell outta town.
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00:00Welcome to TMZ Sports, Mike Babcock here.
00:07We are two weeks into the NFL season for most of the teams at least, and the Carolina Panthers
00:15have already seemingly pulled the plug on the number one pick last year, the Panthers'
00:22number one pick, Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young.
00:24It's a polarizing decision to say the least.
00:27I think a lot of people around the league are very surprised that just two games in,
00:31new coach, new GM, that this decision was made.
00:34I don't know if it's the right decision or not.
00:36A guy obviously who has played in the NFL, who was a top pick himself, and we are very
00:40fortunate to be joined by him.
00:43The former number two overall draft pick in 1998, Ryan Lee.
00:46Ryan, how are you?
00:47Thank you for being here.
00:48I'm great.
00:49What are they doing, Ryan?
00:53Right or wrong?
00:54Are they screwing this thing up?
00:56They screwed this thing up from the get-go, though.
00:59This organization is horrible.
01:03They hire an offensive-minded head coach with an offensive-minded former player as the quarterback
01:08coach a year ago, and then they fire him mid-season.
01:13The owner goes on a rampage.
01:15They go out and hire a quarterback guru in Dave Canales, and then you have a situation
01:23after a poor performance once again on Sunday.
01:26The head coach having his back and saying, he's our quarterback, and then everything
01:31changes on Monday.
01:33What happened is, I'm sure he tested the waters of the locker room from the other coaches
01:38on the staff, maybe even heard down from some ownership and said, hey, we've got to change
01:42the culture.
01:43We've got to get some winning going on here.
01:46I think the best thing for us would be to do that with a veteran quarterback who's seen
01:51it all, been through it all, and can handle all that stuff.
01:58This organization has done nothing to try to help and develop a player that has so much
02:05expectation on them.
02:08I lay this at the feet of the organization completely.
02:13Bryce Young didn't choose to get drafted first overall.
02:16He had no say in it at all.
02:19He wanted to just play football.
02:20He was very, very good in college, and he wanted to play football for a living.
02:26That's where he's at right now, and unfortunately, I don't know what this means.
02:30The team's horrible, A. They're not very competitive.
02:35They're not very talented, and I think this is a perfect fit for a quarterback who has
02:40been through a lot, and Andy Dalton, who can right the ship and maybe give him a chance
02:45at winning a football game here this season.
02:48Is it over for Bryce Young in Carolina?
02:50Is there any coming back from this after, again, pulling the plug two weeks in?
02:56For him, I hope so.
02:58I hope he's out of there at the end of this year.
03:02I hope he gets on with a franchise that really gives him an opportunity to develop and learn
03:08and not be in such chaos.
03:13We're seeing it happen more often, where a quarterback's track is very high, is then
03:18let go, usually in the past, because of the crash and burn or the expectations.
03:24There really is no answer for you other than to be a backup the rest of your career, but
03:28what we've seen with Geno Smith recently and with Baker Mayfield, his fourth team to get
03:33a $100 million extension, that just doesn't happen.
03:39Maybe we're shifting in that direction a little bit, and people are understanding that every
03:43single player that's drafted, like all five or six of the quarterbacks that were drafted
03:46in the first round this year, are all capable of being starters in this league.
03:50They're so good.
03:51Otherwise, they wouldn't have been drafted that way, but it just all depends on where
03:56you go, the system you're in, the coaches you have, how long the turnover is on that.
04:01If you're on your third head coach, by the time you take a snap to start your second
04:07season, that's a real problem, and that's exactly what's happened to Bryce Young back
04:13then.
04:14That's exactly what happened to me.
04:15They fired my head coach in the sixth game, and I had my third head coach and my third
04:18offensive system by the time the season two started, so I can relate with it pretty significantly.
04:25I hope for the best for Bryce, and that is to not be in Charlotte anymore, not be in
04:31Carolina.
04:32Hopefully, that happens sooner rather than later, and I expect him, if he gets another
04:35shot somewhere else, I expect him to be successful.
04:38I wouldn't be surprised at all if you saw a performance such as Baker Mayfield's or
04:44Geno Smith's in what we've seen recently.
04:46Sam Darnold here.
04:47Does he have the tools, Ryan, because you hear people say he might, but the arm's not
04:52strong.
04:53Oh, no.
04:54The arm's so strong.
04:55Okay?
04:56The arm's so strong.
04:57He's so athletic.
04:58He can do everything you ask him to do with a football.
05:01If he wouldn't have been able to, he wouldn't have had the success he had at Alabama in
05:06the SEC, which people compare as close to the NFL as you can get.
05:10All right?
05:11He has zero confidence right now.
05:12No one believes in him, and no one has his back, and I know what that feels like.
05:17You don't want to go into the office.
05:19You don't want to be around anybody.
05:21Football seems so toxic to you because you've always had that.
05:25You've always had success, and you've always been the guy that everybody loved to lift
05:31up and follow and everything like that, and right now, there's no one in that locker room
05:35that seemingly feels that way, and that is a hard place to be as a leader of men when
05:40you're 22, 23 years old.
05:43Because there are so many or few people who have been through such a challenging situation
05:48like this, any consideration in reaching out to him where you feel like not necessarily
05:53your place, and if it wasn't, I mean, is there any sort of general advice you would give
05:57to the kid when it has to be the toughest moments of his life right now?
06:03Of course.
06:04I work with a ton of former players.
06:05I work a ton with guys that are in the league, and what's really good about it is I meet
06:11a lot of these guys in college because I'm either calling games that they're in or their
06:15head coaches have had me come speak to their college program, so yeah, he knows I'm always
06:21available to him.
06:22I'm always here for any current or former player because the NFL is not going to do
06:27anything for you.
06:28The NFL is just going to spit you out and say, who's next?
06:32Make me a star.
06:33I don't want that.
06:34He's bad for the shield.
06:36Let's go with this.
06:38That's what they want.
06:39They want stars, and if you start to struggle or if you're going through things, they're
06:42just going to discard you and move on to the next one, and that's their right.
06:46They're a private business.
06:47They're a money-making propaganda machine that exists out there.
06:52They don't care if you are successful or not.
06:55In fact, they don't care if you live or die, actually, as long as what the product is on
06:59the field at the time is the thing that keeps handing them money.
07:03You need to know who has your back, and I'm going to tell you right now, C.J. Stroud has
07:11Bryce Young's back.
07:12Those two are boys, and so it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Bryce is reaching out to C.J.
07:19for some understanding, and sometimes that's difficult to do when someone's having real
07:24success.
07:25I think Peyton got sick and tired of me reaching out years later because I just was like, I
07:28always asked him the question, like, how'd you do it?
07:30How'd you do it?
07:31How'd you do it?
07:32Sick and tired of Ryan trying to tell me how he did it, you know?
07:36But I think it's astonishing.
07:37It's the hardest position to play in professional sports, and those who do are exceptional.
07:42Absolutely.
07:43Ryan, thank you so much for doing this incredible insight.
07:47I appreciate it so much.
07:49Fascinating conversation.
07:51You bet.
07:52Have a good day.