Andy Dalton, come on!

The Carolina Panthers will have a new head coach in 2024. Dave Canales was hired on the strength of his performance in Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield reclamation project and has apparently seen enough of Bryce Young. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick out of Alabama, who traded the franchise’s 2024 first-round pick and a star receiver to the draft, is now out. Dalton is in.

Dalton, a former starter in Cincinnati with the Bengals, was an injury-hit replacement for the Cowboys in 2020 when starter Dak Prescott was sidelined with a horrific leg injury after just five starts. Dalton led the Cowboys to a 4-5 record and infamously inspired little loyalty from his troops in Dallas.

Dalton was completely torn apart by a slide in a game against Washington in late October that season with a devilish blow to the head. No teammate made much of a fuss about the blow to the opponent.

When Dalton was signed in the 2020 midseason, stop reading if you’ve heard this before. Some disgruntled fans thought he was meant to replace Prescott as the starter. He threw for 2,170 yards with 14 touchdowns against eight interceptions in the 10 games he legitimately appeared in.

Prescott, of course, signed a $40 million-a-year contract the following offseason, despite his injury.

That responsibility has since been handed off to first Cooper Rush and then Trey Lance, and Prescott has since signed a new contract that is now worth $60 million per season.

After 2020, Dalton spent a year with the New Orleans Saints (6-8) and another year with the Chicago Bears (3-3) before joining the Panthers last year. He went 0-1 in 2023 and will now be the starter for the foreseeable future.

During his time with the Bengals, he compiled a 70–61–2 record as a starter and was selected to the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2011 and again in 2014 and 2016.

It seems premature for Canales to pull the plug on a second-year quarterback two games into the season. Dalton certainly gives the club a better chance to win and a better chance to evaluate the rest of the team, but pretending that a roster lacking talent at any level but a fringe starter is a distant second seems a bit reactionary.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Former sub-.500 Cowboys QB somehow starts again in NFL after No. 1 draft pick is benched