Suddenly Panthers quarterback Bryce Young has been sacked…..
Young is the ninth quarterback to be taken first overall since Cam Newton was drafted by the Panthers in 2011. As rookies, the other eight quarterbacks had an average of 11.61 yards per completion. Young is at 8.98, the lowest figure of any of the nine by three-quarters of a yard. The other eight top picks had 6.97 yards per attempt. Young is at 5.25, also the lowest of the nine. His completion percentage is ahead of Jameis Winston, Jared Goff and Andrew Luck, but he has the lowest rookie passer rating by more than 7 points, and the lowest QBR by 11.
There are two areas where Young tops the list of rookie top picks. He’s been sacked 48 times this year, which ties Kyler Murray for the most of the nine quarterbacks.
Getting sacked once a quarter isn’t good for a young quarterback’s health or psyche. But interim coach Chris Tabor rejected any notion that benching Young to protect him could be in the cards.
“I think he’s going to continue to improve,” he said right after Sunday’s game. “(The line trouble) doesn’t concern me at all.”
After having a day to review tape and sleep on the statement, Tabor doubled down.
“The only way to become a better football player is by playing football,” he said. “The only way to get experience in the NFL is by playing.”
Of course, the argument starts to fall apart if you don’t accept the premise of Tabor’s statement — that Young is improving as the year goes on and the hits accumulate.
He threw for 137 yards on Sunday in a game during which he threw the ball 36 times, the most attempts Young has had in more than a month. It’s the sixth straight week that he’s fallen short of 200 yards and the eighth time in 12 starts this season. It’s the third time he hasn’t cleared 150 yards. Two of those games have come in the last four weeks. None of the other eight top picks had more than six sub-200-yard games in their rookie year, and the other eight quarterbacks combined for just nine games of less than 150 yards. You have to go back to Alex Smith, who started seven games as a rookie and never topped 200 yards, to find a top pick who had fewer big passing games. That was in 2005.
