Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young Film Breakdown

[Music] Bryce young had a disappointing rookie season as the first overall pick 11 touchdowns 10 interceptions under 3,000 passing yards and when you compare him to CJ stad the difference is obvious not only in terms of production but arm talent and strength to avoid sacks at this point it would surprise me if Bryce young ended up being a better quarterback than CJ strad but I still think he has a chance to be a really good quarterback he was given negative help from his Supporting Cast in 2023 and actually showed a lot of flashes a lot more than I was expecting heading into his tape starting out looking at his Rookie year stats you can see he was in the bottom half of the league in pretty much every quarterback metric and in the bottom two or three in the majority of them he did have two of his best performances towards the end of the year against the Falcons and the Packers but I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that Bryce young needs to show significant improvement from year 1 to year two before we get into the individual aspects of his game I think it's important to make note of how bad the Panthers Supporting Cast was in 2023 I understand it's kind of the classic excuse that everyone makes for bad quarterbacks is saying they don't have enough help but the Panthers receivers and offensive line I think stands out as being one of the worst supporting casts that I've ever seen for a rookie quarterback he had two receivers DJ CH and Terrace Marshall Junior that were in the bottom five of receiver separation this past season Jonathan Mingo was a rookie who showed some flashes but I think overall struggled and their number one receiver was Adam thielen who at this point in his career is ideally A team's third best receiver with the additions of Deontay Johnson and Xavier Legette I think that has a good chance of being reality but as someone that's made a lot of videos breaking down cornerbacks over the last year I can't tell you how many times I've watched a corner and their best game was against the Panthers and if they play in the NFC South the Panthers were their two best games there was just a colle Ive inability to beat press threaten vertically with speed get in and out of breaks and then actually catch the football and then their offensive line outside of Taylor Moten was one of the worst in the NFL iky aanu regressed in year two he ended up allowing 11 sacks he has so much teach tape on what you shouldn't do with your hands and pass protection and then Bradley Boseman at Center was their only other offensive lineman that started 17 games outside of that they're rotating a bunch of replacement level starters guys that should be on practice squad s Chandler zala the rookie was one of the worst players in the NFL I know PFF grades aren't everything but he had a 7.1 PFF pass blocking grade it's to the point where they released Calvin Throckmorton in week 10 who's like a fringe backup type of guard and you could honestly say that had a significant negative impact on their team because it put Chandler zala on the field so we'll get into more specifics with their Supporting Cast but I think it's important to start out with that because it explains some of the struggles that Bryce young had as a rookie and the fact that they've upgraded it I think makes it more realistic that he has a sizable jump heading into year 2 I am going to start positive like I said I actually think Bryce young put out a lot of encouraging tape last season and I think one of his best traits is his processing and his ability to attack Windows over the middle of the field he has a really good sense for when intermediate windows are going to close and open he's able to throw over the middle of the field with timing and anticipation and when he has time in the pocket he's comfortable working through his progressions and getting to the backside of reeds this play against Tennessee it's Fourth and four he's got a three-man concept on the right side of the field but the Titans are in drop eight coverage so Harold Landry starts out lined up over the B Gap and then he's going to drop into this hook Zone but Bryce Young's able to get to this backside dig without leading the weak side hook Defender into the passing Lane with his eyes and he converts the first down this play against the Packers it's third and six they're running a concept that's usually called pin Tommy Trimble runs a hitch to hold the hook Defender which is Quay Walker and then Adam thelen's running a dig route behind that against an outside leverage Corner definitely some questionable spacing and depth by Quay Walker here but good job by Bryce to fit this in there and then another late down conversion this time they've got fourth and 12 Bryce young is able to manipulate the pocket avoid the pressure all of Carolina's routes last year were extremely slow developing so Bryce kind of had to wait for receivers to get in and out of breaks but he hit hits CH on this deep Stop Route and moves the chains and then third and 10 here against the Dolphins Adam thel's running this Stop Route directly at the Deep middle Defender good job by Bryce to protect the football throw away from the coverage and throw his receiver open on third down there's a lot more plays like this that I could go through but overall I was actually really impressed by Bryce Young's Poise and processing on late Downs attacking the middle of the field this play it's first down in the Red Zone the Panthers are running kind of a double post concept which is pretty much undefeated within the 25 yd line the lions are in cover three so they've got a single high safety and then their Corners are playing with outside leverage and this inside route from Adam Thelen is more of an over than a post but it does the same job of influencing the Deep safety and creating a window for the second post from the outside he takes the snap ID's the safety sees that Tracy Walker is covering this route from Adam Thelen and because CH is running an in-breaking route against outside leverage it's going to be a lot easier for him to create separation he does have to slow down a bit to catch the ball but that's definitely preferable to leading him too far inside and letting the safety impact the play and a similar sort of concept here against the Packers this time they've got three receivers on the right side but they still have like an influence deep over from the number two which is Jonathan Mingo that's going to occupy the Deep safety and then DJ CH stems his post route outside initially to try to widen out the Corner's leverage he breaks inside Bryce young fits it into the window for a touchdown here's another backside dig from the Titans game uh if you remember week one against the Falcons he threw a couple interceptions to Jesse baits where he just didn't recognize him as the backside safety that he was poaching on an in-breaking route so really good job by Bryce young to ID the backside safety see that he's getting depth he's got a milk check in the middle hook so he can fire this in there and get about 20 yards on First and 20 and then just trying to show examples of like every type of throw over the middle of the field this is probably one of his best throws from the 2023 season he just pins this seam right on Ian Thomas' hands right over Levante David's head Ian Thomas isn't able to come down with this but just high level ball placement right here so it might be kind of counterintuitive for a shorter quarterback because they usually struggle throwing over the middle but I actually think that's one of Bryce Young's strengths and it makes him a great fit for Dave Canal's offense I think Bryce young is going to be at his best throwing a bunch of quick in Breakers not asking the protection to hold up for too long but you're still able to push the ball somewhat down the field he just has that natural sense for timing over the middle of the field how routes are going to develop how windows are going to open and close I see like the 90th percentile outcome for Bryce young as being Tua with more play extension ability which I think most teams would take and he also showed the ability to make touch throws outside the hashes uh I said that seam throw was his best throw of the season I actually think this one against the Packers was probably his best they're running a sale concept with outbreaking routes at all three levels of the field as per usual nobody's really open but he puts this exactly where it needs to be where only DJ CH can make a play on it he also had a few nice hole shots against two high this play the Titans are dropping into cover two post Snap so the safety ofman hooker is lined up close to the line of scrimmage he's going to Zone off into the deep half once Bryce sees the corner is playing the flat instead of Manning up this vertical route he hits the whole shot another one here against the bucks he reads the safeties sees that he's got cover two Zion McCullum the outside corner is playing the flat so he's got space to fit this into DJ CH and then kind of a blown coverage here from the Packers on third down but again he's able to fit it in between the safety and the flat Defender and move the chains his ability to throw with touch is also extremely valuable in the Red Zone really good elevation on this touchdown pass to Tommy Trimble against the Texans this play against the Lions he's under pressure but still throws another dime to Tommy Trimble he isn't able to come down with it and then another double post type of concept here against the Dolphins this time it's not just a single high safety that's being influenced he's still got to get this inside of the corner but over xaven Howard who's playing kind of a robber safety role so again I'm not trying to sell false dreams and act like Bryce young secret had this really good rookie season but he definitely showed flashes I've seen people say he didn't show flashes didn't make NFL throws that's just objectively not true and then probably his biggest strength coming out of college was his play extension ability I also thought he flashed in that area this play against the Packers he's got nothing open initially he breaks the pocket hits DJ CH in stride for the touchdown right here it's third and three nothing open on the right side of the field he extends the play dances around the pocket eventually finds chuba hubard for the first down we got a third and N conversion from the same game he's able to break out of the pocket find DJ CH on this deep over this play chuba hubard just gets planted in pass Pro but he breaks out of the pressure rolls out to his left throws a pretty good pass to Adam Thelen it's a little bit underthrown but really good adjustment to convert here so he doesn't have the elite athletic traits that you would normally want for a quarterback that's going to be doing a lot of play extension but he has playmaking instincts outside of the pocket and when he is able to escape the pressure he keeps his eyes down field and is usually able to create something out of nothing he was also pretty effective as a runner he averaged 8.35 yards per scramble attempt which ranked seventh in the NFL at his size I don't that you want that being a primary aspect of his game but he's really elusive in open space he can generate some positive plays with his legs he had some really nice Cuts in the open field this play against the Colts he leads them outside and then breaks the linebacker's ankles this play he's able to shake EJ speed in open space and he had a nice Juke in each of the Saints matchups this play he fakes up field gets to Mario Davis to propose and then breaks outside and then right here he's able to cut and avoid this tackle from Marcus May so that's how I see the positive for Bryce young after his rookie season but there are some limitations and some things that he needs to improve the first thing that I would classify as a real limitation is that he doesn't have a very strong arm by NFL standards I think he's going to do his best work within 25 yards and when he has to push the ball down field he can get it 40 to 50 yards down the field but the accuracy isn't going to be as precise he really has to put everything into it and there's too many plays where the ball dies on him late and it gets there a yard or Too Short this play he avoids the pressure rolls out to his right he's got Adam Thelen coming open extending his route but he just can't put enough into it and this underneath Defender is able to sink and get a hand on it almost get an interception I'm trying not to compare him too much to CJ strad because that's happened enough already and it will continue to happen but watching both of them back to back the difference in arm strength is just impossible to ignore plays like this where he's under pressure getting hit as he's thrown there's a ton of examples on CJ STS tape or really any top level quarterback where the ball just explodes off their hand and they're able to get enough lift under it to throw a catchable pass this play Steven Sullivan has a step of Separation but Bryce can't get it deep enough and it hits the defender back and Falls incomplete so I do think that pushing the ball downfield with consistent accuracy could be an issue for Bryce young especially when he's under pressure having to throw off his back foot he also wasn't very accurate he had the third lowest On Target rate in 2023 that's something quarterbacks usually struggle with in their rookie year just because there's so many other things they have to account for mentally it causes their technique and mechanics to suffer but there were way too many missed opportunities uncatchable passes from Bryce young he overthrew a lot of passes most of his inaccurate throws were overthrows either too high or on an outbreaking route he's putting it too far outside on an in-breaking route he's putting it too far inside he struggled with ball placement when he was under pressure but there were also a fair amount of Misses from a clean pocket Jonathan Mingo specifically was really hurt by Bryce Young's accuracy he led all receivers last year in yards lost when he was targeted with an uncatchable pass while he was open this play he's coming open on the Dig route against Zone coverage Bryce young leads him too far inside really nice route here he uses this rocker Step at the top of his stem to manipulate the Corner's hips and then he accelerates up field he's got two or three steps of Separation Bryce young just throws with his arm here he doesn't really put his lower half into it and so he doesn't have that much control on the placement this play he's just wide open out in the flat and Bryce sails it over his head so for Bryce young to reach his ceiling the accuracy just has to improve I don't think he's going to be someone that generates enough big plays with his arm to make up for scattershot ball placement and on a kind of related note as a shorter quarterback he has a really difficult time throwing over pressure throwing over defenders you see this show up when it comes to hitting his check down from the pocket when he's under Under Pressure but it also limits his Effectiveness in the screen game when you're running a slip screen or a jailbreak screen you're going to have some unblocked pressure in your face and taller quarterbacks with a higher release Point can get rid of the ball with less strain but Bryce either gets his pass batted at the line of scrimmage or he has to put so much touch on it that he ends up overthrowing his Target by a couple yards the next major weakness for Bryce young is sack avoidance he took 62 sacks as a rookie and he had the second highest pressure to sack rate at 24.5% some of these are purely protection issues some of them are coverage sacks where there's nobody open and there's nothing realistically that any quarterback could do in that situation but some of the sacks were on Bryce young for inviting pressure or not getting rid of the ball quickly enough he also doesn't have the size or strength to consistently break out of sacks and even though he's elusive in the open field when it comes to escaping pressure he's just an average athlete so a few sacks to break down here first of of all I'm going to show some examples of sacks that are not his fault this play iky aanu just puts up no resistance Around The Edge gets his outside hand easily swiped down and Joe Tron gets a strip sack as a quarterback it's definitely fair to expect more time than this to get rid of the ball there's plenty of good examples from the Cowboys game where the O Line's getting beat immediately off the snap one of many rough games for Chandler ofala this play it's third and 10 they've got a dagger concept called where the number two receiver runs a seam which clears out the safety and then Adam thelen's going to come open on a dig route over the middle from a play design standpoint this works and they're able to get an open receiver but like I said the routes are way too slow to develop Bryce is just waiting in the pocket for this route to come open and eventually the pressure closes in on him but you can also see on this play how his height makes it really difficult for him to throw over pressure once the pocket starts to compress he loses his field vision and he can't just stand in the pocket for that extra second and get rid of it as he's getting hit his only method of really extending the play is to break outside of the pocket another third down example here where again they've got a dig route coming open over the middle of the field but there's unblocked pressure off the left and once the pass rush closes in you can see he's completely consumed by the pocket a couple seconds into the play Bryce young is invisible like if we can't see him he definitely can't see over the middle of the field but he also brings some pressure on himself this is an area that I expect to improve as his career progresses this play they block up a pretty good pocket for him there's nothing open downfield so he gets into a scramble drill but he does one of uh Sam how's favorite moves where he breaks out of the pocket and then just kind of hovers in open space like the 280lb edge rushers aren't getting paid to get sacks he rolls out to the right which is fine but you've got to keep moving because Trayvon Walker just disengages chases him down and gets the sack right here you get a good pass set from Taylor Moten but Bryce young just steps into the pressure Again The Edge rusher can easily disengage and get a cleanup sack so he's probably never going to have this Elite escapeability and Sack avoidance but I do think there's some stuff he can clean up just with his decision- making in the pocket and then speaking of decision- making I think you've definitely got to address some of the interceptions and interceptable throws I don't actually think this was a major issue for him over the course of the entire season he just had a few really bad games where he turned the ball over two or three times looking at this plot that has big-time throw rate and turnover worthy play rate for every rookie quarterback since 2006 you can see he was actually below average in turnover worthy play rate meaning he protected the football a lot more than average and turnover worthy plays also include fumbles which he had a good amount of so as far as just making bad decisions throwing the football that wasn't really a huge problem for Bryce young but it still is something that needs to improve like I said I think for Bryce young to reach his potential he's got to be just surgical as far as ball placement and decision-making his first two interceptions came in week one which I'll give him a bit of a pass for and they were both pretty similar he just either ignored or took for granted Bates as the robber safety over the middle of the field through these in Breakers as if Bates wasn't even there and he gets an easy interception you never really saw this type of interception show up again so I'm not overly concerned by it he had three picks against the Colts two of those went back for a touchdown the first one he just doesn't put enough on this check check Down Kenny Moore is able to easily undercut it and bring it back to the end zone he threw a very similar pick six against Dallas to Don Bland on a drag route that he was able to undercut for whatever reason whenever I put that play in a video it gets demonetized so you're going to have to just imagine it or you can go look it up I guess this play you see what we were talking about earlier where when he's got to throw a screen pass over pressure he can't just naturally elevate it from a high release point it really messes up his ball placement when he's got a try to Loft it over someone or sidearm this one goes straight to Kenny Moore and again he brings it back for a touchdown later in the game we see some improvement his third interception actually doesn't go for a pick six he's got this seam against Tampa two the pull Runner over the middle is right underneath the route his arm gets hit on the downswing of his throwing motion so he doesn't get enough air on it and it's intercepted this one against the Lions uh we showed a lot of examples of him making really nice touch throws and hole shots but the flat Defender has eyes on the quarter back Bryce doesn't see him zoning off and he throws an interception this play the Bears are running a pressure where it's an allout Blitz initially but then once the linebacker gets a blocker to engage he's done his job and occupied the protection so he drops back into the whole Zone Bryce wants to hit Tommy Trimble on this shallow cross but he doesn't see Jack sandborn in coverage and almost throws an interception so there's definitely some decision-making stuff to clean up but like I said on a per snap basis I don't think he made a lot of bad decisions and they were really focused in a couple bad games this is my full scouting report on Bryce young to kind of sum up my thoughts I mentioned it earlier but I really see the high-end comp for Bryce young as Tua with more play extension ability if he can get more consistent with his ball placement I think you can design a really efficient offense around Bryce young but he isn't purely a system quarterback he actually has the ability to break out of the pocket and create when there isn't anything available I think with some of his physical limitations it might be hard for him to carry an offense and offset a bad offensive line or receivers that don't get open but you know that's the majority of NFL quarterbacks there's only a handful of guys that can consistently elevate a bad offensive roster [Music] [Music]

Channel: A to Z Sports Film Room

Views: 15,532

Keywords: NFL, bryce young, carolina panthers, bryce young film

Id: QC7aiRwetBg

Length: 20min 23sec (1223 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024