DISRESPECT: Chris Simms SLAMS Bryce Young in Latest NFL QB RANKINGS – Overreaction or FACT?

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]It's May and there's absolutely nothing to talk about as far as the NFL goes, which means that it's list season and Chris Simms made his own quarterback rankings list and well, he's not high on Bryce Young. So, I guess we'll talk about it right here on Locked On Panthers.

[00:00:22]You are Locked On Panthers, your daily Carolina Panthers podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

[00:00:32]Welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Panthers podcast, a part of the Locked On Podcast Network and I'm Julian Council, your host as always, who's going to reluctantly discuss Chris Simms quarterback rankings on today's show because it's Memorial Day weekend, the official start of summer and look guys, ain't nothing going on with the NFL right now. The Panthers OTAs begin next week and it's really also not going off or much to go off of, but of course I'll cover it, we'll talk about it, but we are in the part of the calendar where you're really stretching for content and something to fill the hours, the minutes, the days so that you, the NFL fan, the fan of this show, are entertained. I don't know if I'm entertaining you at all, but I'm going to try to do it today as Chris Simms, former Bucs quarterback, the son of Phil Simms, nepo baby, a former Texas Longhorn, he was there in that quarterback competition with Major Applewhite, one of my first memories of watching college ball back in the early aughts, he is now doing a list. It's list season, my god, and he's ranking quarterbacks, which he loves to do and his quarterback rankings are especially for the draft and I suppose it's all a guess or always bad. He had Zach Si- Wilson, not Simmons, but why Zach Wilson is his top ranked guy a couple of years ago, but he is ranking quarterbacks heading into the 2026 season and as we get into OTAs next week after the holiday. And apparently, he ranked Bryce Young 31st. Panthers Wire from USA Today, they picked it up and they wrote an article about it. And here I am talking about it. So, I watched a little bit of video. It was like a 7-minute clip. I watched like 2 minutes.

[00:02:15]I'm not going to sit there and listen to 7 minutes of Chris Simms. I'm sorry.

[00:02:18]Appreciate the hard work he does.

[00:02:20]Obviously, a smart guy. Good enough at the media game. Has the right last name and father to be where he's at. I'm just really not going to sit there and listen to everything he had to say. So, I took a little blurb of what he said about Bryce and why he ranked him there. He said, "He does have a good feel for the position at anticipating throws, but at the end of the day, this is still a guy that because of his size, there's plays turned down because he's just not he because of not hanging in the pocket or not seeing it. At times, it's too conservative because he can't really see that guy down the middle of the field.

[00:02:50]Then goes underneath. At a base level, throwing is not good enough for me to rank him above this." Now, there's a graphic which I took a photo of and have in my notes here where they looked at where he ranked in the NFL in completion percentage at a 63.6% completion percentage last year. That was 22nd in the league. Passing yards per game, 182.2, which is bad. That was 27th in the league. Uh yards per pass attempt, 6.3. That was 30th. Passing touchdowns, 23rd. That was tied for 14th. Interceptions, 11. That was tied for seven. So, yeah, the numbers as far as the basic stats go, aren't great. I like to dive into even the more analytical stats like I mean, well, passer rating, I wouldn't say that's one of them. It's kind of a flawed statistic. I mean, you could throw the ball on the ground the whole game and you could still end up having a batter better passer rating than if you actually played the game um and like try to play it. But, he was 27th in passer rating last year. He was 28th in EPA per dropback. He was 23rd in success rate. But, he was second in game-winning drives of seven. And that's the whole thing with Bryce Young. Does he throw for a lot of yards? No. Does he turn it over sometimes? Yes. Are his numbers overwhelming? No.

[00:03:58]But, in his career, when he's needed at times to make the plays, he's made them.

[00:04:06]And hell, he did it in the playoff game.

[00:04:08]And like late in the game after the Rams scored, there was not enough time for Carolina to feasibly get down the field and actually go out there and either win, take it overtime, win that game.

[00:04:18]That wasn't going to happen. But he had the game-winning drive. Thanks, Isaiah Simmons. That pump block. He got it done several times. There's other ones like the Eagles game. XL drops ball. That should have been one. Tampa, if the defense could stop a nosebleed that season, that would have been one. He's had the most game-winning drives since he entered the league. And that is a part of his story. It's like the whole is he clutch thing. Well, based on that, I suppose he's had awful performances. You look at what he did against the uh Saints first time, against Seattle. But then you have games like the playoff game. You have the first Rams game. You have the Falcons games, plural, to point to to where it's like, okay, there's something here with this guy. You're just looking for that consistency. And is this disrespectful to Bryce Young? I don't I don't know if I can say that. I think he's probably better than the 31st best quarterback out of 43 guys. He has Carson Beck ranked. He's never played a game in the league. Uh Ty Simpson's never played a game. He's not going to play this year as long as Stafford stays healthy. Shedeur Sanders, okay, like obviously Bryce is better than him.

[00:05:20]Jarrett Stidham is a backup. Deshaun Watson, he may be a backup. Over him or Shedeur. Davis Mills is a backup. J.J.

[00:05:25]McCarthy's probably going to be the backup to Kyler Murray this year. Tua may start, but uh Marcus Mariota, backup. Kirk Cousins, backup. Fernando Mendoza's never played.

[00:05:36]Michael Penix Jr. And it like that's the guys he has Michael Penix Jr. right behind him. Yeah, he's only two spots ahead of Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner out of Indiana, number one overall pick by the Raiders, who's never played a snap in this league. Like, that part of it is disrespectful as hell to me. And then they have Kyler Murray ranked 30th, Mac Jones ranked 29th. And Mac Jones is also a backup in this league. Having a backup, maybe even two of them, ranked ahead of Bryce. I mean, really? Really? And I I'm not necessarily sold that he's the guy long-term. We'll talk about that momentarily, but this is this is why new media is bad for everybody. Because we just we don't need to be discussing quarterback rankings and having quarterback rankings in in May. We don't need to be doing this, but here we are.

[00:06:27]He's better than that ranking.

[00:06:30]But the numbers, they outside of game-winning drives, they tell you that and this is a bottom quarterback in this league. But in the fourth quarter and late, yeah?

[00:06:40]He's been the best in that category since he came in a couple years ago. But the major question is, and somebody actually we're talking about before I cut it off, was how sold are the Panthers on Bryce Young? I don't know how sold they are, but let's think about the words. Now, let's think about their actions. We'll talk about that here in just a moment on Locked On Panthers.

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[00:08:46]It doesn't really matter what Chris Simms ranks Bryce Young or where he ranks Bryce Young or really what I say and all that. Do the Panthers believe in Bryce? Are they really sold on him?

[00:08:57]If you go over some of the things that have been said and done over the off season, it does make it a very valid question.

[00:09:04]Like Dan Morgan went on the K-EYE in the show and she asked about the fifth-year option. And this is what he said verbatim. This is not me paraphrasing.

[00:09:13]This is not me making up his words. He literally said this when she asked about would they exercise fifth-year option.

[00:09:19]And he said, "Yeah, we picked it we picked up the fifth-year option and Bryce is definitely our future."

[00:09:25]So, he said, "Yes, we Yeah, we picked up his fifth-year option and Bryce is definitely our future." And I know, as I stumbled through the first time, I said something that I did not write down, which is what he actually said, which is yeah, we picked up his fifth-year option and Bryce is definitely our future. So, if he says that, he's Bryce is definitely our future, then it sounds like they're sold.

[00:09:51]But, when Dan and Brant Tilis were asked about Bryce in negotiations this off-season, they said that they haven't had them or they weren't willing to discuss that.

[00:10:04]And from my understanding, there hasn't been a conversation, nor should there be a conversation because, well, yeah, he's had the most game-winning drives since the end of the league, but when you look at traditional stats, you look at advanced stats, he's rated as one of the bottom third quarterbacks in the NFL during that time as well. And is that a guy who's showing you enough consistency to buy into him long-term? The answer is no. Now, they did do the right thing, in my opinion, which is exercising his fifth-year option, which is going to pay him $31.8 million across the next two seasons, this season and in 2027. He's their starter for the next 2 years, and they should be invested in doing everything they can to make sure that they can win with Bryce. And I think so far this off-season, they've done that.

[00:10:51]Now, have they done everything? No, probably not everything. They could add another veteran at guard, maybe an experienced wide receiver, they could have done that. They didn't do everything that I want to see them do, but they've done a good job since the unmitigated disaster they put him in in 2023 to do right by the quarterback. And he has rewarded them with the way he's performed since the second half of that season back in 2024, and then of course last year really down the stretch where he was an additive to them getting to the playoffs and really pushing the Rams in that game at home back in January.

[00:11:21]So, no, I don't think they should be interested in in extending him. They have a pretty good deal right now. 2 years, $31.8 million, that's great for a starting quarterback.

[00:11:30]But, yeah, there needs to be a lot more from Bryce. And I had that stat, I got to go look back at it, but all the games where he's thrown for like less than 200 yards, there's more of those than games he's thrown for over 200 yards, which is kind of crazy in today in football where it's become such a pass-happy league that very rarely have the Panthers been able to actually surpass what would feel like a normal passing day for any offense in this league. That has not really happened here. And is that all on the quarterback? Certainly not. But, um you want to see more from Bryce. And my hope is, and I think my expectation is that you will see more. Just how much more? Like, that's the big question. So, are they sold?

[00:12:11]For now, but long-term?

[00:12:14]Well, what have they done?

[00:12:17]They've told you that they're not ready yet, so we'll see how that all plays out. That's going to wrap up this edition of the Locked On Panthers podcast for our Locked On Podcast Network, hosted by yours truly, Julian Council. Again, y'all, subscribe and follow the show for free over on YouTube or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. And be sure to follow me, Julian Council, over on Twitter and Blue Sky at Julian Council, where I will be back with y'all next Friday answering your weekly Friday mailbag questions. Hit me, DM me to get those questions in to me right now. In the meantime, be safe, be happy, be whole. As always, keep pounding and enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. I'm not sure whether I'm going to have an episode for y'all on Monday. Um I know at least for Tuesday, they're going to be out there at some point next week for OTAs. So, I'll have an OTA preview for you. That will likely be the next episode when that comes out on Monday or comes out on Tuesday. And then we'll do some OTA reaction. Uh we'll do an NFC South vibe check. We'll do your mailbag questions. And maybe there'll be another episode in there, but at least those four episodes are going to be coming out as far as the full shows. The bonus shows, I I have no idea. Uh but we'll we'll have it all covered for y'all next week. And then after that, we, thank God, will go down to three shows a week for 7 weeks, which will be amazing. So, yeah, tune in whenever, subscribe, do what you got to do. At least enjoy your holiday weekend, go outside, think about something other than the Panthers, and just enjoy being around people that you love. So, I'll talk to you sometime next week.