Bryce Young, Alabama (6’0”, 194)
What Scouts Say:
Arm talent in abundance gets the ball out quick no matter the depth, can be successful with many arm angles and both on platform and off balance. Elite as a creator and with the athleticism to match. Goes through his progressions and makes his reads. Doesn’t have elite arm strength, lots of his reads are schemed and he locks on his primary for too long. Small.
What We Saw:
Tony:
Clearly has plays where his athleticism, arm talent, and creativity are the reason the play was successful, and when it comes to just doing the generic stuff he’s still pretty strong. He’s electric, but with the same shortcomings most college QBs have (one or two reads on a play, target lock, schemed reads). He can clearly lose his rhythm at times, but rebounds well and has tremendous clutch/poise. Can identify the coverage between man/zone quickly and uses it to his advantage. He scrambles so well, but it never feels like he scrambles before he needs it, and he continues to look downfield as he’s approaching the line of scrimmage. He is excellent both when creating something out of nothing and deadly from a clean pocket, but if pressure comes and hes unprepared, he can be erratic and inaccurate. Will make his receivers better.
Shane:
Bryce is the real deal. I get it, his size is not what you want a QB to be, but I’d rather have the talent that Bryce possesses in a smaller frame compared to the genetic freaks with insurance salesman talent that others in this class possess. We’ve seen big guys put on even more weight, there’s no reason Bryce can’t put on 20lbs across 2 years as a pro in The NFL. His stats regressed in 22 compared to 21, but his talent ascended. He lost 2 WRs in the draft and missed some time due to injury and still elevated Alabama to a top tier team. He knows his frame and utilizes it to his advantage to nimbly escape pressure and make impressive throws while being mobile. If I could describe Bryce in one word it would be “poise”. The man has composure until the very last second and will utilize the entire field, while processing the defense from presnap till release. Even with composure, it never really felt like he held onto the ball too long in 95% of the instances where he was attempting to buy time. His quick release also played dividends to that. The only issues I saw with Bryce are the deep ball is not perfect and he doesn’t slide, which makes me a tad nervous for when he takes his first hits in The NFL. In ‘21, his pocket awareness did make me apprehensive but he developed a feel for pressure as the season progressed into ‘22 where he was either able to evade pressure, climb the pocket or rush for 5-8 yards to extend the play when he had a window. I’m hoping the NFL falls for The Levis Trap and lets Bryce fall to the Seahawks. Bryce to DK across the middle is fantasy success. At the end of the day in rookie drafts, I’ll still hope that the 1.01s take Bijan in SF so I can get a potential top 20 QB for the cheapest I can find him. Granted I don’t think Bryce can break into the top 10 QB numbers, but a borderline QB1, solid QB2 is something I’m willing to spend a high first on.
Player Comparisons:
Kyler Murray/pre-Shadow Realm Russ Wilson
Grade: Early Round 1 Dynasty Pick
