By ROB MAADDI, AP Pro Football Writer

Getting benched may have been the best thing that happened to Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson.

Both second-year quarterbacks are playing well since returning to the starting lineup.

Young has steadily improved after coming back in Week 8. He’s displayed the skills that earned him a Heisman Trophy at Alabama and convinced the Carolina Panthers to draft him ahead of C.J. Stroud with the No. 1 overall pick in 2023.

Young had his best game on Sunday, nearly leading Carolina to an overtime win over Tampa Bay if it weren’t for Chuba Hubbard’s fumble in field-goal range. He threw for 298 yards and a go-ahead touchdown pass in the final minute of a 26-23 loss.

Young almost led the Panthers to a win over the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs a week earlier only to see Patrick Mahomes drive Kansas City into position for a winning field goal as time expired.

Rookie coach Dave Canales benched Young for veteran Andy Dalton after just two games in which he had a 44.1 passer rating.

The 23-year-old has completed 60.4% of his passes for 1,062 yards, six TDs and three interceptions — none in the past three games — while going 2-3 in the five starts since Young got another opportunity to lead the Panthers (3-9).

Richardson has led Indianapolis to a pair of comeback wins late in the fourth quarter in three starts after he regained his starting job. The Colts (6-7) selected Richardson No. 4 last year and he started just 10 games before coach Shane Steichen benched him for Joe Flacco in Week 9.

Richardson completed only 44.4% of his passes with four TDs and seven picks in his first six starts. He’s improved to 52.4% with three TDs and two picks since coming back. The 22-year-old tossed a 3-yard TD pass to Alec Pierce on fourth-and-goal with 12 seconds remaining and then ran in for a 2-point conversion to lift the Colts to a 25-24 win over New England on Sunday.

Young and Richardson both have a long way to go to prove they can be franchise quarterbacks. But there’s far more optimism now that they’re not busts.

Young is on his third head coach and second offensive coordinator in two seasons. Canales is known for getting the best out of quarterbacks, helping Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield revive their careers.

He made a bold decision to bench Young after just two games but that allowed him to watch, grow and learn without the pressure of having to perform.

Now it appears Young might have a future in Carolina when that seemed unlikely in September.

Richardson just needs more experience. He threw only 393 passes in college and started four games as a rookie before he was injured. Steichen’s decision to bench him for Flacco didn’t work out. Flacco, who was the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year last year after leading Cleveland to the playoffs by going 4-1 in five starts, struggled in two games.

Still, that gave Richardson a chance to reset after tapping out for a play in the game before he was benched.

Quarterbacks need time to develop. They can’t be judged fairly after one or two seasons, especially when they were high draft picks who joined bad teams that lacked talent.

Clock management blunders

Matt Eberflus lost his job as Chicago’s head coach a day after he watched the offense run out of time with a timeout in hand, missing an opportunity to push Detroit to overtime on Thanksgiving.

But Antonio Pierce made an even worse decision on Black Friday that cost the Raiders a chance to beat the Chiefs. Aidan O’Donnell drove Las Vegas to the Chiefs 32 with 15 seconds left. Instead of trying for a game-winning field goal down 19-17, Pierce wanted O’Donnell to take the snap, allow more time to tick and throw the ball away. But O’Donnell wasn’t ready for the snap, the Chiefs recovered the fumble and escaped with the win.

Managing the clock shouldn’t be this difficult for NFL head coaches.

Tucker’s troubles

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker is having the worst season of his 13-year career. If he wasn’t one of the best kickers in NFL history, Baltimore would’ve made a switch already.

But coach John Harbaugh has too much respect for Tucker, who began the season as the most accurate kicker in league history.

Tucker has missed a career-high eight field-goal attempts, including two in a 24-19 loss to Philadelphia.

Harbaugh, a former special teams coach, isn’t planning to replace Tucker. But the Ravens (8-5) have Super Bowl aspirations and Tucker needs to straighten things out.

One solution would be to place him on injured reserve to work on his technique. In this case, Tucker has earned the right not to be released.

Plus, he’s signed through 2027.

Source: wralsportsfan.com