Panthers Select Bryce Young With No. 1 Pick in 2023 NFL Draft
The Panthers have selected Alabama quarterback Bryce Young with the No. 1 pick of the 2023 NFL draft.
Thursday’s first round kicked off with the unsurprising move, widely speculated and predicted since Carolina traded multiple draft picks and wide receiver DJ Moore to the Bears for this year’s first selection. The Panthers will look to find consistency in the quarterback position with Young, something the team has lacked since 2018, the last year Cam Newton served as the full-time starter.
Young racked up quite the résumé in his time with the Crimson Tide, winning the Heisman Trophy and Maxwell Award in 2021, his first year as Alabama’s starter. In 27 starts, the 21-year-old guided the Crimson Tide to 24 wins—including an SEC championship—over his career. Despite his 5’ 10” 204-pound frame, he threw for an Alabama single-season record of 4,872 yards and 47 touchdown passes in ’21. He followed up the historic season with 3,328 passing yards and 32 touchdown passes in ’22.
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Carolina has trended downward since its Super Bowl 50 appearance and Newton’s 2018 late-season shoulder injury and subsequent foot injury that sidelined him for most of ’19. He was released in ’20 in favor of Teddy Bridgewater, one of the many faces the Panthers tried at quarterback in recent years. The Panthers haven’t had a winning record since ’17, accumulating a 29–53 record since then with quarterbacks such as Bridgewater, PJ Walker, Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield at the helm.
