Many NFL quarterbacks share a common story: they fall vastly short of the expectations that they had when they were drafted. The history of the NFL is riddled with players who never lived up to the hype, but the quarterback position has far and away the most names on that list.
Why? Being a skilled quarterback requires two important things that other positions typically do not: playing with confidence, and a skilled roster around them.
Bryce Young seems to be a prime example of a QB lacking these factors. Recently benched after one full season plus two games under center, his team, the Carolina Panthers, is devoid of any offensive talent whatsoever to support Young and has already gone through two head coaches in the season-plus since Young was drafted. He was selected with the first overall draft pick in 2023 out of the University of Alabama with high expectations, having won the Heisman Trophy in 2021. But his performance in the NFL has been far from that level of production. In his rookie season, Young threw for 2,877 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions, good for a very poor quarterback rating of 34.1. And it’s not just the numbers; watching him play, he makes poor decisions with the ball and cannot make high-quality throws.
When asked about Young’s situation, Jack O’Brien ’26 said, “I think at Alabama, he was surrounded with skilled players… if you gave him a better team, I don’t know how good he would be.” He also contrasted this situation to that of C.J. Stroud, the quarterback who was drafted with the pick after Young and has found success with the help of a very strong Texans team in front of him.
Many people feel that he was thrust into the starting role too early. The Panthers have no players talented enough to help him. He is in a situation that could never work out, leading many to believe that he would have benefitted from not immediately being the starting quarterback and instead sitting until both he and his team were ready for his arrival as a starter.
There is nothing to say that Bryce Young was destined for failure – coming out of college, he was a very highly touted player with a bright future in the NFL. But now, many would call him a broken quarterback. It would take a drastic change to save the career trajectory of Bryce Young.
