After 18 starts in his NFL career, quarterback Bryce Young was benched.

What happens next?

This is difficult to say with certainty, because rational people never find it easy to predict the behavior of irrational or dysfunctional people with any degree of accuracy.

Young is probably finished, unless new starter Andy Dalton gets injured. Apart from Jack Plummer, who is on the practice squad, there are currently no other internal options.

Maybe it’s a Zach Wilson-style breather, but more likely it’s the product of the whims of owner David Tepper, whose fingerprints can be found on every decision made and/or every cup with every drink thrown.

Tepper appears to have fallen in love with Young. Now Tepper has fallen out of love with him. Tepper could still fall in love with him again.

Or Tepper could prevent that by trading Young – if anyone would trade him. He makes $915,000 in salary this year. He has a fully guaranteed salary of $10.125 million for 2025 and 2026.

Would it make sense for Miami to have Tua Tagovailoa out for the rest of the year? Other than the Dolphins, there aren’t many obvious alternatives right now.

If nothing comes of it before the deadline (which is seven weeks away), the question is whether the Panthers would trade him in the offseason to one of the teams that selected him ahead of CJ Stroud in the 2023 draft (and no, the Panthers weren’t the only ones).

This all assumes Tepper doesn’t change his mind again sometime before the end of the season. Tepper wants what he wants, when he wants it, and one of the benefits of being in charge is that he can change his mind. And reverse it. And change it again.