Carolina Panthers select Bryce Young with the first pick. Grade: A

(Syndication: Detroit Free Press)

This wouldn’t even be a question if Young stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 210 pounds. The fact that he has the same height/weight profile as Doug Flutie doesn’t negate his ability to call plays, read protections, execute a fully-formed passing game in and out of the pocket, and win against pressure to a preposterous degree. The Panthers have the first pick for the first time since they took Cam Newton in 2011, and their next real franchise quarterback is right here.

Height: 5′ 10⅛” (1st percentile) Weight: 204 (6th)
40-Yard Dash: N/A
10-Yard Split: N/A
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: N/A
Broad Jump: N/A
3-Cone Drill: N/A
20-Yard Shuttle: N/A

Wingspan: N/A
Arm Length: 30½” (10th)
Hand Size: 9¾” (61st)

Bio: Young, who started working with quarterback coaches in the sixth grade, stated his high school career at L.A. Cathedral, transferring to national powerhouse Mater Dei in Pasadena, California in his junior season, becoming the first Black quarterback in school history. He is the third Mater Dei alum to win the Heisman Trophy, joining John Huarte (1964) and Matt Leinart (2004). As a senior, he won California Gatorade Player of the Year, USA Today Offensive Player of the Year and the Most Valuable Player award for his conference.

Young was a five-star recruit and the second-highest player in his class behind defensive lineman Bryan Bresee, who chose Clemson. Young first committed to USC (verbally), but when Steve Sarkisian became Alabama’s offensive coordinator, he was able to convince Young to make Alabama his home. In three seasons with Alabama, including the last two as the tea’s starting quarterback following Mac Jones’ NFL graduation, Young completed 623 of 952 passes for 8,341 yards, 80 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He also gained 162 yards and scored seven touchdowns on 139 rushing attempts.

Stat to Know: Against six or more pass-rushers in 2022, Young completed 20 of 34 passes for 318 yards, 146 air yards, 12 touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 129.7. As they say, if you come at the king, you’d best not miss.

Strengths: Why is Young so effective against the blitz? He has his own version of what Patrick Mahomes has developed to an alien degree — an instinctual feel for where people are in the pocket, and how to get out of it to make the big play. That’s how he can make ridiculous scramble drill throws like this one against LSU.

One reason the ball just explodes off Young’s hand is that he’s generally mechanically integrated — everything works together for the optimal result. And here’s where his throwing height — where the ball comes out — is crucial. Young doesn’t really have any weird stuff in his windup that would affect his process. He has a compact, quick, overhand delivery, and though he can adjust his arm angles, that’s the default setting, as it should be.

When throwing directly over the middle in 2022, Young completed 63 of 90 passes for 839 yards, 340 air yards, seven touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 115.9. It’s the kind of thing that isn’t a problem for shorter quarterbacks until it is, and in Young’s case, it hasn’t been yet.

This 53-yard pass to Isaiah Bond against Arkansas showed not only how Young could navigate a cross blitz, but also how well he moves to the open spots of the line to see open targets. This is Young moving up in the pocket, and throwing a 49-air yard dart.

Moving to the open lane is an adaptative strategy adopted by any great shorter quarterback from Fran Tarkenton to Drew Brees to Russell Wilson. Young has perfected it, because he has had to.

There’s also the issue of defenders getting right in his face — well, how does he do when some giant dude beats his blocker and prevents Young from seeing things as he would like to? Ask Kansas State defensive lineman Jaylen Pickle, who swore he had Young dead to rights, and had to watch helplessly as Young threw this 47-yard bomb to receiver Jermaine Burton.

Weaknesses: Like a lot of young quarterbacks, Young will occasionally fixate on a target to his detriment — on this interception against Auburn, he had tight end Cameron Latu in his sights, but Latu was pressed out of the route by linebacker Owen Pappoe. Young needs to reset when these things happen and avoid burning that throw in there regardless.

And as great as Young is on the move, that also leads at times to needless freneticism in and out of the pocket. There’s a point when Young started to speed the clock in his head, and that’s where he can start to make mistakes in both reading and accuracy.

Conclusion: Young is a modern-day outlier from a height and weight perspective, but he hasn’t suffered injuries because of it, and his adaptive strategies to overcome it are well-placed on his tape. Regardless of those physical concerns, Young is an ideal point guard in a movement-based offense in which he can both get around in the pocket and leave the pocket to make big plays as a passer. That said, teams will want him for what he offers above the neck — he comes into the NFL with a pro-level sense of how to run an offense, and if you can get past the size thing (which I suspect a lot of teams have already done), he’s got just about everything else you want at the game’s most important position.

NFL Comparison: Deshaun Watson. Of course, we’re talking about Watson on the field ONLY, and Watson before his off-field stuff affected how things go on the field. When Watson was at his best in his first four seasons, he was running total NFL offenses to a very high degree, and his relatively slight stature (6-foot 2, 215 pounds) didn’t factor into it. It’s tough to remember that Deshaun Watson, but if you can, you can superimpose a lot of what that Deshaun Watson did on the field at a very high level.

Story originally appeared on Touchdown Wire