The National Football League is going through the worst era of quarterback play its fans have ever seen. The trickle-down effect is even reaching college football, with Name, Image and Likeness playing a large part in the equation.
Teams will not commit. In the NFL, it seems to largely be caused by the rookie wage scale, a system putting a valuation on each draft pick and its subsequent contract. The fifth-year option, in collaboration with a swirling media landscape, pushes general managers and franchises over the edge.
Panic decisions are made; young stars are forgotten and moved, never to see a second chance. College football quarterbacks are now feeling the effects of an issue that has plagued the NFL since 2011’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. A restless group of decision-makers is easily influenced, but this is not a problem unique to the National Football League.
That is not to say exceptions do not exist. Bryce Young, quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, is breaking the mold, or he is just returning it to its former shape. Either way, his path to success is arduous.
Young, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 and scored 87 total touchdowns for the University of Alabama, was drafted first overall to the Panthers in the 2023 NFL Draft. Carolina was coming off a 7-10 season and also faced the firing of former head coach Matt Rhule midseason. Rhule led a stretch of below-average football following Ron Rivera’s exit and the end of the Cam Newton era.
Young joined a Panthers team in disarray. Star wideout DJ Moore was sent to the Bears alongside significant draft capital to acquire the pick used on Young. His running back was Miles Sanders, who had just lost the support of power back D’Onta Foreman after he signed with the Bears.
An aging Adam Thielen led a wideout corps of unproven young guys and irrelevant veterans. The defense was bad. The offensive line was not exactly a murderer’s row of big men. To top it off, a second-time NFL head coach with limited winning experience, Frank Reich, was hired to lead a cast of misfits and unwanted talent.
It went exactly as most people expected: Reich was canned after week 12, Young struggled mightily and the Panthers limped their way to a 2-15 record. In year two, the struggles continued, and the young signal caller was even benched in favor of Andy Dalton for five games. When he returned, he showed flashes under new head coach Dave Canales, who was successful in revitalizing Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay.
Carolina made moves to help their franchise quarterback as year three approached. They spent heavily on the defense, keeping the ball in Young’s hands. They also added Rico Dowdle and Tommy Tremble as offensive weapons. But the biggest addition by far was wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who was selected with the eighth pick of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Arizona.
The big-bodied receiver and other weapons, along with a revamped defense, led to Bryce Young’s breakout 2025 season. Significant improvement in all efficiency metrics and 25 total touchdowns proved the Panthers were right to invest in Young. They even snuck into the playoffs, losing a close game in the wild-card round to the Los Angeles Rams.
The undersized quarterback has been fantastic to start 2026. Through four games, Young has nine passing touchdowns to just two interceptions and spearheaded an offense averaging 405.8 yards per game, good for fourth in the entire league. Running back Chuba Hubbard also deserves his flowers as a key factor.
Young is proving the NFL’s quarterback development problem can be solved. Despite this, college football is starting to see teams panic and move on from quarterbacks early too. Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning is the exception to what is becoming the rule.
There was a rather sizeable elephant in the room addressed as soon as hype began building around Arch Manning. Arch Manning is the nephew of Super Bowl-winning Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, and Super Bowl-winning all-time New York Giants great Eli Manning. His grandfather, Archie Manning, is a University of Mississippi legend and had a long professional career with the New Orleans Saints.
To sway the young Manning away from family-connection schools, Ole Miss and Tennessee, the University of Texas gave him a significant NIL deal. This commitment made it hard for Texas to put a team around Arch Manning. The situation is almost an inverse of the NFL salary ordeal, and at first glance Bryce Young and Arch Manning look nothing alike.
Upon deeper research, they possess very similar career paths. After Arch Manning struggled in his first year as starter with an awful offensive line, Texas could have cut their losses then. With the transfer portal becoming so prominent in modern-day college football, the university could have encouraged Arch Manning to transfer and bring in a new starter.
Texas did not. Arch Manning was given the proper time to develop. Arch Manning had number one pick expectations going into year one as starter, was regarded as a developmental day two or three pick following that season and is now thought of as a first-round pick once again.
While he has been just above average thus far as a senior, including a rough outing in a shocking loss to unranked University of Oklahoma, he is still considered a highly touted NFL prospect by many.
Arch Manning, like Young, was berated on social media early on. Fans called for him to be cut or benched. Texas, however, stuck with their vision, and the investment has paid off for them so far. Whether it translates into postseason success is yet to be seen, but Manning is absolutely a star.
Nobody has a crystal ball in football. NFL and college scouts simply do not know if a player will be good. There is only one way to find out.
Let them play and let them develop.
