Bryce Young is officially a member of the Carolina Panthers after finalizing his rookie contract, the team confirmed Saturday.
Carolina Panthers @PanthersWake up.<br>Wake up.<br>Wake up.<br><br>It's signed 😁 <a href="">
The NFL's rookie wage scale dictates what each individual draft pick makes on his first deal. As the No. 1 overall selection, Young was in line to sign for $37.9 million over four years with a $24.6 million signing bonus. He'll have a salary cap hit of $6.9 million in 2023.
According to Schefter, the deal is fully guaranteed.
The Panthers didn't spring any surprises when they made the 2021 Heisman Trophy winner the first name off the board on April 27. The closer the draft got, the more he became the consensus favorite.
Bleacher Report's Brent Sobleski gave Carolina an "A" grade for the pick:
"Young lands in a situation where he'll have former NFL quarterbacks as his head coach in Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach in Josh McCown. Those guys saw how Young conducted himself, absorbed information and played the game. When all of those factors were taken into consideration, his size didn't matter."
As Sobleski alluded to, Young's frame is his biggest concern. He measured at 5'10" and 204 pounds at the NFL Scouting Combine, both of which are below the usual standard for an NFL quarterback.
"If you pick him, you are saying that he's the outlier in the history of the league," one NFL executive said to ESPN's Pete Thamel. "Kyler Murray was that size, but a little sturdier built and ran low 4.4s. [Young is] an awesome player and awesome kid, but you are saying that the guy is the one outlier in the history of the league."
Still, Young was the most polished passer in the 2023 class. He threw for 8,200 yards, 79 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his two years as a starter for Alabama.
B/R Gridiron @brgridiron1 minute and 44 seconds of <a href="">@_bryce_young</a> cooking at Bama ♨️ <a href="">
For the Panthers, the clock is already ticking.
Nobody is expecting the franchise to make an immediate turnaround after hitting the reset button and hiring Reich. But the advantage of selecting a starting quarterback out of the draft is that you have significantly more flexibility to fill out the roster.
The Miami Dolphins have utilized this to great effect by acquiring Bradley Chubb, Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey through trades while Tua Tagovailoa is still on his rookie deal. The Los Angeles Chargers did the same thing during the 2022 offseason when they beefed up the defense by adding Khalil Mack, J.C. Jackson and Sebastian Joseph-Day.
The 2023 season is about letting Young grow under center and building for the future in Carolina. If he's as good as advertised, then it won't be too long before general manager Scott Fitterer will need to get aggressive and move the rebuild to the next stage.
