Bryce Young Scouting Report: Is Bryce Young the favorite to be selected first overall?

Headed into draft season, Bryce Young looks like the favorite to be the number one overall pick. We break down his skillset here.

Bryce Young has been one of the best players in college football over his last two seasons as the quarterback of Alabama. He won the Heisman Trophy in 2021 and followed that up with another spectacular season in 2022.

Young currently looks like he’s going to be the first quarterback off the board in 2023 NFL draft. We break down why that is the case.

The scouting report is also available in a video format here. I strongly encourage everyone to watch that video as it allows you to visualize everything I discuss in this scouting report.

Overview

Birthdate: 7/25/2001

Height/Weight: 6-foot-0, 194 pounds

High School: Mater Dei (Santa Ana, CA)

Recruit (247): 2020 class No. 2 Natl No. 1 Dual threat QB

2022 Stats: 245/380 3,325 Yards 32 TD 5 INT

2022 PFF: 91.5

2021 Stats: 365/550 4,860 Yards 47 TD 7 INT

2021 PFF: 92.2

Strengths

Intangibles/Poise
- Mental
  - Everything you want out of a QB from an intangibles perspective.
  - He’s a leader as he was named a team captain at Bama in both of his seasons of starting.
  - Someone who can operate an offense extremely well.
  - Not someone who is going to be phased by big moments or big games.
  - Led an incredible, 97 yard drive that started with 1:32 left in the Iron Bowl.
  - Doing that in such a big moment against their rival with the season on the line shows a lot.
Accuracy
- Accurate to all levels
  - Throws the deep ball well, has enough arm strength to air it out deep and places his deep balls well.
  - Consistently accurate in intermediate and short areas as well.
  - Deep (20+ air yds): 2021 28/74 1,062 Yds 14 TD 95.8 Gr 2022 21/48 749 Yds 6 TD 95.0 Gr
  - Med (10-19 air yds): 2021 76/130 1,519 Yds 9 TD 94.3 Gr 2022 71/108 1,192 Yds 13 TD 94.2 Gr
  - Short (0-9 air yds): 2021 157/197 1,657 Yds 21 TD 84.0 Gr 2022 100/132 1,002 Yds 9 TD 74.1 Gr
  - BLOS: 2021 104/105 622 Yds 3 TD 74.9 Gr 2022 53/57 382 Yds 4 TD 71.0 Gr
- Touch
  - Ball placement is very good as he consistently puts passes where they need to be.
  - Has good anticipation- leads receivers well- rarely do his receivers have to adjust very much to the ball.
- Proven Production
  - One of the best players in college football each of the last two seasons.
  - Won the Heisman trophy in 2021.
  - PFF Gr: 2022 91.5- tied for fifth amongst FBS QBs 2021 92.2 tied for first amongst FBS QBs.
Out of Structure Ability
- Extending Plays
  - If you look at the current landscape of elite QBs in the league, almost all of them are guys tho can extend plays and create outside of structure of the offense.
  - Bryce Young certainly provides that as he did it quite a bit at Alabama.
  - He isn’t a running QB, but he can scramble and pick up a first down when necessary which is important for QBs.
  - He also uses his scrambling ability to buy time for his receivers to get open and find them- which is something he does extremely well.

Weaknesses

Height
- Listed at 6-foot-0, 194 pounds at Bama, but that doesn’t seem accurate.
- Most likely 5-foot-10, or 5-foot-11
- The combine will be important to me in completing his evaluation.
- If he’s actually under 6-foot-0 it’s notable as that makes it difficult to throw over the middle in the NFL.
- He would be amongst the shortest QBs in the league.
Arm Strength good, not elite
- Arm is good enough to have success in the NFL.
- Arm strength just won’t necessarily be his calling card, won’t be amongst the league’s best.
- To compare to prospects in this class Anthony Richardson has a better arm.