Is it too early to put last month’s No. 1 overall selection into a set of league-wide quarterback rankings? Not for Chris Simms.
The former NFL passer and current NBC Sports analyst kicked off his annual top-40 list on Monday’s episode of Chris Simms Unbuttoned. He begins his rankings with quarterbacks 40 through 36, where he has Carolina Panthers rookie Bryce Young at No. 38—ahead of Atlanta’s Desmond Ridder and Washington’s Sam Howell.
“Bryce Young, like we’ve talked about, natural with the game,” he said. “Now, I know people are gonna go, ‘Well, wait. He hasn’t played in the NFL so how can he be better than Sam Howell or Desmond Ridder?’ And I wanna go, ‘Well, there’s a reason the guy’s the No. 1 pick.'”
Simms would later name a few of those reasons.
“I’m excited to see Bryce Young,” he added. “Hey, he’s slick, he’s a natural at the position. He’s got a lot of different releases, he’s extremely smart—pre-snap or post-snap, whatever you want there. And, yeah, I just think it’s a matter of time. He’s gonna have to fail in a pretty big way for him not to be the starter in the preseason.”
For Young to become the starter, he must surpass veteran Andy Dalton—who, according to general manager Scott Fitterer—is considered the starter “right now.” Dalton is also ahead of his new teammate in Simms’ rankings.
Simms, additionally, has Young looking up at fellow 2023 draftees C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson—who were taken with the second and fourth overall picks, respectively. Stroud sits at 37th while Richardson, who was actually behind Young in Simms’ prospect rankings, is 36th.
