Carolina Panthers May Pick C.J. Stroud in Do-Over, But Bryce Young Remains Solid Pick

What would the Carolina Panthers do in 2023 if they could do it over again? This is a question that has plagued them since they traded up to the number one overall pick in 2023. Should they have stayed with the ninth pick and kept their assets? Should they have taken C.J. Stroud over Bryce Young?

The real answer is that they should've stayed pat. Young has improved every year, but in reality, there is almost no quarterback worth what they paid for Young, which amounts to a star wide receiver, the ninth overall pick, the first overall pick, and plenty more.

But suppose they did make the trade in this redo of history. Would they instead take Stroud? Are they satisfied with the selection of Young? One NFL insider has the answer, and it's honestly good news either way.

What would the Panthers do in 2023 redraft?

Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young (left) poses with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected by the Carolina Panthers | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Knowing what they know now, would the Panthers still pick Bryce Young over C.J. Stroud? It's honestly a difficult situation to analyze, even now. Stroud has had the better career, but he's slowly trended down since his elite rookie year. Meanwhile, Young started abysmally, but he's improved.

The two are not as far apart as they seemed in 2023. Young's better than we thought then, and Stroud is not the next face of the NFL as we thought. So, what would Carolina do, knowing all that?

In CBS Sports analyst Ryan Wilson's redraft, he made the rule that the teams could not select the same player they picked the first time. So, the Panthers can't draft Young in this hypothetical exercise, but they might want to.

"There was a point during the 2023 season that the Panthers may have regretted not taking C.J. Stroud. In the last season-plus, you could argue Young has outplayed Stroud, but if there was a re-draft today with the ... rule in place, Stroud would be Carolina's pick 10 times out of 10," Wilson wrote.

He seems to get at the core of this argument. In this case, they can't take Young. But they might've wanted to anyway. Now the question is where does Young go? Has he shed the bust label enough to stay in the first round?

The answer is unequivocally an enthusiastic yes. Per Wilson, the Texans would snap up Young with the second overall pick and not think twice about it. And, he claims, they'd be in a similar position had they done this in the first place.

"Young has probably been the better QB over the past 12 months, and I think both Young and Stroud are going to continue to improve in Year 4. The Texans' roster is stacked, but if you don't have a serviceable QB, it won't matter," Wilson said.

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell after being selected by the Houston Texans | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

He continued, "Stroud played out of his mind as a rookie, but I'd like to think Young would have helped Houston advance to the playoffs at least twice in his first three seasons in the universe where they drafted him."

There has been some revisionist history in the last few years. There were times when people genuinely claimed Young should've gone undrafted or that Tommy DeVito was a better prospect from that class than Young.

Those were always silly takes, and Panthers fans have known that. But it is still nice to see that the predraft debate that honestly had Stroud and Young as 1A and 1B in terms of prospects is still raging on. There's still no clear consensus, so it can't be argued that the Panthers made the franchise-altering mistake it once seemed like they did.

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