Yes and as far as I know still a serviceable backup. He might legitimately be an improvement.
He’s 36, he’s not particularly old for a QB. The last time he was a full-time starter was in 2022 for the Saints (replacing Jameis Winston who was hurt in Week 3), where he was in 14 games and went 6-8. He was pretty meh, but not terrible. He had an 18/9 TD/Int ratio and a 66.7% accuracy (which was actually his best accuracy rating of his career, believe it or not).
Last year he was a backup for this awful Panthers team and only started once, when Young got hurt. I remember that game because it was against the Seahawks and he was actually pretty decent. He had 2 TDs in the game, no turnovers, and threw for 361 yards on 58 pass attempts.
In all honesty, I do think he’s an upgrade. He’s only mediocre at best, but that’s still better than Bryce Young. Statistically speaking, Dalton has much better numbers, even over the last few years. The only advantage I can think of with playing Young is that he’s, well, young, and hopefully will develop into something better. Dalton is who he is and isn’t going to get better.
I believe they saw Dalton as a high floor, low ceiling guy, and Young as a low floor, high ceiling. But I don’t know how high Young’s ceiling is anymore.
I’m curious if the team does better under Dalton. They pretty much can’t do worse. And Young isn’t necessarily a bust, maybe he needs to be a backup for the rest of the year or something, though I wouldn’t put my hope on that.