Bryce Young is finally getting a little more of the respect his play has earned.
That’s the big takeaway from Mike Sando’s latest quarterback tiers, the 13th straight year the Athletic writer has polled 50 executives and coaches on 35 experienced quarterbacks for 2026. The list is split into five tiers, with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford tied for second, and Joe Burrow sitting at the top in Tier 1.
Young lands in Tier 3 at No. 22, which feels like a meaningful step for the Panthers’ quarterback after the best season of his career. In 16 regular-season games and starts, the reigning NFC South champions’ field general completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 3,011 yards and 23 touchdowns.
The turnover number still sticks out - 15 total, and most of them came in the first half of games. But Young also showed he could shake off early mistakes and keep Carolina in games. That was on display in the wild card round against the Los Angeles Rams, when he threw a first-quarter interception in the Panthers’ 34-31 loss, then bounced back to throw for 264 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown while also running for 24 yards and a score.
Sando noted that Young, now a three-year pro and a tier debutant in 2024, has improved every year in this process. And the feedback from people around the league suggests that jump didn’t go unnoticed.
“He made a huge jump in 2026. His command, his confidence, his accuracy, the movement-he just seemed so much more confident as a player.
It was an eye-opener for all of us to watch him perform. It reflected in their team.”
This from a coach whose team faced the Panthers during the second half of 2025.” And another coach stated that Young was “a 3 who is growing on me.”
A former general manager offered a different, but still complimentary, read on Young’s game: “He needs the athletes around him, and they’ve done a good job surrounding him. He doesn’t necessarily elevate them, but he puts them in a position to be successful.”
That lines up with what Carolina has built around him. General manager Dan Morgan used the eighth overall pick in the 2025 draft on wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who caught 70 passes for 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns and was named the 2025 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Former undrafted free agent Jalen Coker also finished strong and carried that momentum into the playoffs. And Morgan has put together some pretty solid offensive lines around Young, too.
If Young is going to keep climbing in these tiers, the next step is pretty clear: clean up the slow starts. He turned the ball over 16 times across his 17 total outings, with 11 of those mistakes coming in the first half. That kind of inconsistency has to disappear if the improved version of Young is going to keep moving up.
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