What Happened to Bryce Young? Lack of Development, Loss of Confidence Dooms Carolina QB

When Tom Brady officially transitioned from quarterback to announcer, he brought some of his real, honest opinions with him —such as the way the process for training quarterbacks in football is broken.

And while the player is never entirely blameless, it was hard not to think about that point after watching the Panthers’ decision — a fair one, based on merit — to bench second-year QB Bryce Young after a brutal 0-2 start. Young isn’t the only quarterback struggling, but he’s likely the highest paid.

In Brady’s day, quarterbacks had to fight from the ground up after high school. There was no transfer portal, no NIL, and most kids started their journeys as fourth-stringers (or seventh-stringers, as in Brady’s case). They were forced to trudge through the kind of competitive bedlam that makes or breaks a man.

Modern-day college football is no longer that, and it hasn’t been that way for a long time.

GALLING DEEPER

Is Bryce Young being benched the beginning of the end for last year’s No. 1 pick?

Not only can players leave when they’re frustrated and play right away, they get paid handsomely to do so. Plus, nothing derails a player’s development more than a coaching change, which is happening faster than ever before. The pre-NIL version of the College Football Playoff also saw a huge swath of the nation’s top prep talent flow to a handful of programs — Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Clemson, LSU and a few others. Those teams amassed so much monster depth that, for some of them, practices were harder than most games. Powerhouse programs were built on what was best for that program, not necessarily what was best for each player’s development.

Young’s career at Alabama is a perfect example of that last point. He never ventured into the transfer portal or played for a head coach other than Nick Saban. But after spending 2020 behind Mac Jones on Alabama’s national title team — one of the most talented in modern college football history — Young had an NFL-ready, 220-pound RB in Brian Robinson Jr., three draft picks at WR (including Jameson Williams), more draft picks at his starting and backup OL, and a defense that had it all in his first year as a starter.

His team was far more talented than the opposition in at least 13 of its 15 games in that 2021 season.

🐘 21/23
🐘 270 Pass meters
🐘 5 wins

Bryce Young is the first player in @AlabamaFTBL history of throwing 5 touchdown passes in one half. photo.twitter.com/pZ1qMyOGtd

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) November 13, 2021

Furthermore, when Young signed with Alabama out of high school, he did so knowing essentially that he would be the starter as a sophomore. That kind of outlook is a reality in today’s game, and it’s exactly what Brady is talking about.

In the past, Young — the No. 1 prospect in his class — likely would have found himself on a team with multiple NFL quarterbacks on its roster. He would have had to work harder to earn and keep his spot, and that process would have ironed out the kind of Day One hiccups that have now crushed a 23-year-old’s confidence in the NFL and forced him to the bench.

Justin Fields’ situation at Ohio State was essentially a shot-for-shot remake of this. He picked a school with top-tier talent — and zero competition for the starting position. The rest is history.

Young made a ton of plays in the pocket, on the move and off the platform during his two-year run as Alabama’s starter. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2021. He was a phenomenal playmaker, a tough leader and a winner. When he plays with confidence, his athletic instincts are off the charts.

In trying to win games, Alabama (rightfully) let Bryce be Bryce. He got away with sloppy throws that his receivers caught. He got away with missing open routes because someone else was wide open somewhere else on the field. And, most importantly, he got away with bad footwork because he was talented enough to do it.

Here are a few examples of Young being able to make a big play for Alabama without the proper footwork because he’s playing on an extremely talented team and hasn’t faced NFL defenders yet:

This isn’t to say that Young wasn’t coached at Alabama — of course he was. But when you consistently get away with this kind of thing in gamesas a young player, you remember that. And that’s not always good.

To be clear, NFL scouts didn’t screw up their evaluation of Young. Obviously, for every franchise (like Carolina) that rated Young higher than C.J. Stroud, that turned out to be a mistake. But beyond that, we’re comparing him to Anthony Richardson (the No. 4 pick) and Will Levis (No. 33) in the 2023 draft class, two other extremely talented passers who — like Young — are struggling with the little stuff right now.

Of that group, Young was at the top. And unfortunately for Young, he was drafted by a desperate franchise with questionable ownership and no direction. Again, similar in many ways to how Fields’ early NFL story played out.

GALLING DEEPER

The Panthers’ rush to start Bryce Young is an example of quarterback malpractice that is all too common in the NFL

The deal Carolina made to acquire Young is already one of the worst in league history, and not just because Young’s future is uncertain. When the Panthers drafted Young, they did so with a young and unproven offensive line, perhaps the worst combination of WR and TE talent in the NFL, an overpaid/unproven running back, and an owner with zero patience. Young is actually one of the rare college players who has had coaching consistency, so when Carolina owner David Tepper fired Frank Reich 11 games into Young’s rookie year, the roof came in.

If the Panthers had drafted Stroud and Tepper had made the same move, you would have seen Stroud struggle as well. You can’t pull a rookie quarterback out from under his feet while he’s still looking for his seat. From a 10,000-foot perspective, Carolina’s “Bryce Young problem” is largely the fault of the owner. Young needed more help, more stability, and something resembling a healthy environment to fix his issues, because Young’s footwork issues have been there his entire career.

Namely, his feet need to be calmer and in rhythm with the routes his targets are running. If they’re not, all the timing-based concepts — most of what you do in the NFL — are ruined. Young didn’t run a particularly “pro-style” offense at Alabama. And now as a pro, he’s often late (or early) on basic reads, either because he’s got his feet wrong, waits too long for his first receiver, or a combination of both. All of which takes time to recover from.

we take that

📺 | @nfloncbs photo.twitter.com/BwFTg1jKoS

— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) September 15, 2024

Because Young spent much of his college career in a shotgun system that required him to read run-pass options more than fundamental passing concepts, he was allowed to make plays without ever having to worry about his feet. The depth of his drops out of the shotgun and from under center are erratic, lacking in feel, and frankly, no one seemed ready to go over those details with him. to He reached the competition.

Young had 31 dropbacks during the 2023 preseason and was either pressured or sacked on about half of them. His footwork and blocking by Carolina’s offensive line shared much of the blame. In his first three games as an NFL player, he was pressured by defenses on 38 of his combined 81 dropbacks (with six sacks). That’s what can happen when you surround a rookie QB with the worst roster in the league.

There was certainly a lot of bad last season, but Young at least sprinkled in moments of improvement early on. The Panthers never helped him enough, though, and Young’s own moments of going off script and trying to do too much only made things worse.

By the end of the 2023 regular season, Young was No. 2 behind Sam Howell in pressure — and seemingly utterly lacking in confidence. Young was entering his second season with his third head coach, his third quarterbacks coach, and his second offensive coordinator. It started, literally on the first play, pretty much as you might expect.

Young’s play on the field is atrocious, so much so that first-year coach Dave Canales would have risked losing the locker room if he had stayed with him.

Through two weeks, Young is the NFL’s least accurate starter, with an off-target rate of a whopping 19.6 percent; in 2022 at Alabama, Young was the fifth-most accurate Power 5 starter. Young’s EPA/pressured dropback currently ranks dead last among NFL starters (-.40); at Bama in ’22, his EPA/pressure dropback number (.13) was better than every other prospect in his draft class.

He’s been beaten too many times, his comfort in the pocket is gone and his confidence is completely gone, but he’s also only turning 24 in June.

Whether Young’s time in Carolina is over remains to be seen. Failure is almost never final in football, especially at Young’s age. Perhaps Canales and his offensive coaching battery of OC Brad Idzik, pass game coordinator Nate Carroll and QB coach Will Harringer can quietly fix Young’s problems while Andy Dalton holds the fort. Or maybe Tepper will demand that the franchise move on.

GALLING DEEPER

Which 0-2 NFL teams should panic? Model predicts playoff chances for Ravens, Bengals and more

It wouldn’t be wise, however, to throw in the towel on Young as a prospect forever, whether that’s in Carolina or — eventually, maybe — somewhere else. This isn’t a Trey Lance or Zach Wilson situation. Those were COVID-induced scouting failures. The situation with Young in Carolina was more like what Fields had in Chicago, only worse.

Stroud was clearly a better player, and it’s not fair to make “what if” comparisons, but look at the situation he came into Houston with. The weapons, the offensive scheme, the functioning defense — Stroud had all of that and thrived. Young’s didn’t have any of that and failed.

Brady was a pretty good quarterback. You may have heard of him. People should listen to his message now, because it’s important and highlights a problematic situation. He’s right about how the current state of the college game — often combined with overzealous NFL owners who don’t know what they’re doing — is killing quarterback development.

We all see with Young what could happen as a result.

(Photo: Grant Halverson/Getty Images)