Bryce's Passing Efficiency: He played great yesterday, but IS HISTORICALLY BAD as passer.

[SCO96]

I found the below information on the web this morning. It's rather long, but it pretty much sums up Bryce's career (to date) with the Panthers. When he plays well, we play well. When he delivers a typical "Bryce Young Performance" the team struggles.  The segment detailing the meaning of a his career YPA completely describes his tenure in Carolina

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In the modern NFL, anything around 7.5 yards per attempt (YPA) or higher is considered good, and 8.0+ YPA is typically viewed as very good to excellent.

YPA Benchmarks (Modern NFL)

• 6.5 and below — Poor (As of yesterday Young's career mark is 6.4)

• 6.6 to 7.2 — Below average to average

• 7.3 to 7.6 — Solid/Good

• 7.7 to 8.2 — Very good

• 8.3+ — Excellent / top-tier QB efficiency (Yesterday Young posted a mark of 10.3)

Why 7.5+ is “good”

League-wide YPA in recent seasons typically sits in the 7.1–7.3 range. So once a quarterback is consistently above ~7.5, he’s operating above league efficiency and generating chunk plays without excessive short passes.

What a Sub-6.5 YPA Typically Means

1. Inefficient passing

You’re gaining fewer yards per throw than the league norm (~7.1–7.3). This usually correlates with:

• Fewer explosive plays

• Struggling to sustain drives

• Lower scoring offenses

YPA is one of the best simple efficiency indicators, so being under 6.5 usually means the passing game isn’t functioning well.

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2. Overly conservative passing

A low YPA often reflects:

• Too many checkdowns

• Short, low-risk throws

• Not pushing the ball downfield

• Play calling designed to avoid mistakes rather than gain yards

This is common with rookie QBs, backups, or teams with poor pass protection.

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3. Difficulty completing intermediate and deep throws

Low YPA can mean:

• The QB isn’t hitting big-play throws

• Accuracy issues

• Arm strength limitations

• Receivers not getting separation

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4. Poor supporting structure

Sometimes it’s not the QB—low YPA can also result from:

• Weak offensive line (forcing quick dump-offs)

• Below-average receivers

• Predictable or safe play calling

• Injuries limiting the scheme

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5. Usually correlates with losing

Historically, teams with <6.5 YPA tend to have:

• Below-average offensive efficiency

• Poor 3rd-down conversion

• Lower points per game

• Losing records

YPA correlates strongly with winning; sub-6.5 teams often finish near the bottom.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by SCO96

[csx]

Chatgpt 

[dep]

He's 6.4 this season, career YPA is 5.9

[SCO96]

1 minute ago, csx said:

Chatgpt 

Yep. I've known about the importance of Yards/attempt for years but it was nice to see it all summarized in an easy to read format.

[SCO96]

2 minutes ago, dep said:

He's 6.4 this season, career YPA is 5.9

Oops, thanks for catching that. That's even worse news. 

[kungfoodude]

55 minutes ago, dep said:

He's 6.4 this season, career YPA is 5.9

LLM's always make a ton of mistakes. 

[SCO96]

7 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

LLM's always make a ton of mistakes. 

Actually, that was all me my man. I looked at the YPA numbers in ESPN. Bryce is 6.4 this year, 6.3 last year, and under 6.0 in 2023. I just typed in the wrong number and forgot to average the 3 seasons. 

[electro's horse]

Yes but if you take the averages over the past three games, minutes games played on the west coast, and ignkre the first half from yesterday, and extrapolate them out. 

[Jay Roosevelt]

I will say it does seem like Bryce is taking more shots downfield recently and having more success when he does.

[SCO96]

Sometimes after a game one of the Huddlers will post a picture of Bryce's past distribution chart.

Where do you get that data?

And has anything been posted for yesterdays game?

[kungfoodude]

25 minutes ago, SCO96 said:

Sometimes after a game one of the Huddlers will post a picture of Bryce's past distribution chart.

Where do you get that data?

And has anything been posted for yesterdays game?

For his passes in zones?

LOS

LOS-10

10-20

20+

?

[Khaki Lackey]

If the trend continues, he"ll be good in 12 seasons. 

[SCO96]

1 minute ago, kungfoodude said:

For his passes in zones?

LOS

LOS-10

10-20

20+

?

Yes sir. And sometimes they'll even have a graph with a distribution of where the ball was thrown: to the left, to the right or over the middle. I feel that I've noticed a trend with Bryce in terms of how he attacks the field.

I want to know if the analytics back me up or if I'm just imaging things.

[CRA]

34 minutes ago, SCO96 said:

Sometimes after a game one of the Huddlers will post a picture of Bryce's past distribution chart.

Where do you get that data?

And has anything been posted for yesterdays game?

outside of 2 4th down throws and the final one,  Bryce wasn't really playing football yesterday.