An amazing football streak is happening in Charlotte. The Carolina Panthers, a franchise defined for a decade by Cam Newton’s fearsome frame, decided to swing to the other end of the spectrum. Stepping into Newton’s giant shoes was Bryce Young, a diminutive 5’10 quarterback who didn’t quite reach the shoulder of the offensive line, weighed 204 pounds wet, yet the level of hope and desperation Newton found when he arrived in Carolina with the No. 1 overall pick: Please just be this guy.
Bryce Young has seen the memories, heard the jokes, internalized the criticism thrown at him from all sides. Now he stands out against the skeptics as he corrects not only what people previously believed about Bryce Young, but NFL football in general.
There was good reason to doubt whether the Bryce Young experiment would work. Despite his small stature, he was the only quarterback to succeed in modern football – and yet he was one of the greatest. Drew Brees, the Saints’ standout quarterback, was forced to play on his toes to add a little more reach to his frame, making sure his passes traveled through the hands of stretched defensive linemen, and no one else was able to do that. Bryce is not Drew Bryce even though they both play on the toes. Brees has dominated the NFL by taking control of the pocket, picking apart the game with unparalleled speed and winning with big, aggressive, eager throws. Meanwhile, Young likes to operate outside the RPO, setting up the offense in the snap and has a tendency to extend plays from the pocket, but he has the same big-play potential as Brees. Analysts are starting to pay attention.
Young leads the NFL in interceptions through four games. Despite facing more pressure than any quarterback in the league.. This should not be easily possible. Football tells us one thing is universally true: Big plays require clean pockets, but Young isn’t doing that. What’s more, this is where he dispels another myth about his size: that his small frame always meant he was “one sack away” from injury.
In four seasons, Young was sacked 128 times as a problem on the Panthers’ offensive line. Number of games missed due to injury: Two. Both were due to sprained ankles on the move, not hits. Meanwhile, big, strapping, good-sized Joe Burrow has been sacked 98 times and missed 16 games in the same span. That’s not a knock on Burro or an injury, but rather shows how ridiculous it is to think that player size is a predictor of injury in the NFL. Hitting in the league SUCKS. More often than not an injury is a case of being lucky or unlucky rather than being “big enough to absorb the hit”. The truth: No one is good enough to absorb the NFL without any improvements.
The next debunked rumor is arm strength, which has become one of the dumbest conversations to return to NFL talk. 20 years ago I thought we had passed up the importance of arm strength, but here is Kyle Bowler winning it in the NFL after being drafted as a howitzer. One of the biggest criticisms of Young is that his arm was poor, that he didn’t throw it often against Alabama, and people used that as a marker that he “can’t be big in the league.” Watching film, no, Young didn’t have the ability to throw back-to-back 60-yard bombs, but he had plenty of speed. The idea that players have to handle this otherworldly cannon is in a league where even the best deep throws average 9.5 yards and those rainbow 50-yard bombs in the air happen two, maybe even three times a season. Speed and accuracy reign supreme in the NFL, and Uncle Rico can’t buy the ball on the mound. As long as your arm is good enough, that’s all that matters. That’s why the youngster is so highly rated without a top-3 arm this season.
Finally, there is the ability to recover from adversity. There have been many quarterback careers that have taken off in recent years, from Geno Smith to Sam Darnold to Baker Mayfield, and the list goes on. The difference with all those guys was that they needed a change of environment and new coaches to find their place in the NFL. The youngster was ready to sign after his first season and change. When Panthers coach Dave Canales benched Young early in his second year, many predicted it was the beginning of the end. Instead, it was teaching benching, slowing down the game, accepting that even Heisman winners can’t succeed when they’re in the dumps. The youngster came back and steadily improved every game since, which brings us to this offseason.
No two balls are played the same way, and no one develops the same way. Impatience reigns in our modern, short-form video society — but the truth is, quarterbacks have it all the time It takes time to get used to the league. Josh Allen took two years to turn into a monster, Bryce took three. Some of the other guys may need more or less time, which is why it’s smarter for the Raiders to let Fernando Mendoza sit out and learn instead of forcing him into this “trial by fire” way of thinking. Patience seems to evaporate when it comes to NFL football, which is why it’s no coincidence that so many pitchers find a second life when they switch teams.
People have tried to rewrite Bryce Young time, and time, and time. Too short, too light, not strong enough, damage waiting to happen, #1 pick of the bunch. The Panthers, but most importantly, Bryce Young were able to tune out all the noise. Now this team is reaping the benefits of defying expectations, and here comes Young. He’s not Drew Brees because he’s small, he’s Brees Young because he’s tenacious — and it’s time we put some respect on his name.
