Bryce Young is on the NFL Top 100 for the first time in his career. The Carolina Panthers quarterback checked in at No. 98 on NFL Network’s annual list, which is voted on by the players themselves, marking his first appearance since Carolina traded up to draft him first overall in 2023.
The numbers behind the ranking are career highs across the board: 3,011 passing yards, 23 touchdowns against 11 interceptions, and an 87.8 passer rating over 16 starts in 2025. None of those figures put him near the top of the position. What they represent is a second consecutive season of movement in the right direction from a player who looked, two years ago, like he might not get a third one in Charlotte.
Peer recognition is worth taking seriously precisely because players vote on it. Opposing defenders and quarterbacks around the league watched Young operate last season and decided he belonged on the list ahead of players with louder box scores. The Athletic’s Joe Person, who has covered Young’s offseason closely, reported that the quarterback trended up at OTAs and minicamp less for what he did with his arm than for how he used his voice — including calling out his receivers after a run of drops in a wet practice. Command of a room was the trait scouts questioned least when Young came out of Alabama, and it is showing up again now that the results have started to follow.
The realist’s view of a rebuild is that progress only counts when it compounds, and No. 98 is exactly the kind of marker that means something in July and nothing in December. Young’s improvement has come in steps: better protection numbers, fewer catastrophic downs, career-best efficiency. The next step is the one Carolina traded its future for — a season where he elevates the offense rather than steadies it. The pieces around him are more settled than at any point in his career, and the schedule opens against Chicago with three prime-time windows to follow, the team’s most since 2016.
Panthers players report for camp on July 22. Young will arrive as a top-100 player by his peers’ account. Whether he leaves the season as one by anyone’s account is the whole question of Carolina’s year.
