Hopefully, the NFL won’t leave Bryce Young’s body lying somewhere in the sands of time.
Pro Football Focus lead analyst Sam Monson recently named each starting quarterback’s kryptonite—or biggest weakness for you non-comic book lovers out there—heading into the 2023 season. And you can’t imagine what he had down for the 5-foot-10, 205-pound Young . . .
Young was an elite quarterback in college, but his virtually unprecedented size was all anybody wanted to talk about pre-draft. The reality is that, in today’s game, the rules for quarterback size have changed. His size won’t prevent him from throwing the ball over the line or even working the middle of the field.
The fear is that, at some point, Young will be in the grasp of a defender who may outweigh him by 150 pounds, and at that point he is a victim of physics and merely a passenger along for a ride that ends by crashing into the turf at speed. That’s what caused Tua Tagovailoa to get concussed last season, and it could be Young’s biggest issue at the next level.
If you’re new to this, Young’s size has been a prevalent discussion ever since his jump to the pros. That discussion isn’t exactly unwarranted either, as he was the lightest quarterback selected in the first round since 2006.
And if you ask Young, there’s nothing new about it. The 22-year-old has stated, time and time again, that he’s “been this size” his whole life—so the doubt surrounding his stature isn’t unheard to him.
But playing against NFL defenders, who are on an entirely different level of size and skill compared to his past competition, is another obstacle Young will have to soar over.
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