The Carolina Panthers obviously had University of Alabama star Bryce Young atop their quarterback rankings for the 2023 draft. Perhaps the fact that they selected him No. 1 overall was a solid indicator of that.
But where does the rookie rank amongst the league’s starting quarterbacks? While it’s pretty difficult to compare him against veterans—because, ya know, they’ve actually taken pro snaps—Pro Football Focus lead NFL analyst Sam Monson gave it a crack.
Monson stacked up the league’s 32 projected starters and settled Young into the 25th spot of his list. He writes:
Young was the best quarterback in this draft by a considerable margin, and the only thing that made the discussion close was his lack of size — something that becomes obvious any time he is captured on film with anything near him to show true scale. Young has elite accuracy, anticipation and decision-making (back-to-back seasons with a 2.0% turnover-worthy play rate), but success at his size in the modern NFL is without precedent.
If you couldn’t tell by his blurb, Monson has Young over his fellow 2023 draftees in C.J. Stroud (30) and Anthony Richardson (32). The 2021 Heisman Trophy winner also came out ahead of a few young vets including Green Bay’s Jordan Love (26), Washington’s Sam Howell (27) and Atlanta’s Desmond Ridder (31).
We’ll just have to see how Young and that ranking size up when the snaps are actually taken during the 2023 campaign.
