Bryce Young Had Dinner With Panthers Leadership in T-Town

Bryce Young had dinner Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa with a large amount of senior leaders in the Carolina Panthers organization. The visit comes on the eve of Alabama's pro day, where Young will be performing a series of workouts. Young did not participate in any on-field drills at the NFL Combine.

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The Panthers currently hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft and paid a handsome price to get it from the Chicago Bears, moving the team up from the No. 9 spot. The team is in desperate need of a quarterback, with the position being a sort of revolving door of lack-luster players since the decline and departure of Cam Newton.

Young was joined by the owners of the Panthers, David and Nicole Tepper, along with a plethora of front office and coaching staff, including head coach Frank Reich, general manager Scott Fitterer, assistant general manager Dan Morgan, Vice President Samir Suleiman, and assistant coaches Jim Caldwell, Josh McCown, and Thomas Brown.

In the past, Reich has had a tendency to prefer tall, more prototypical quarterbacks. Carson Wentz and Phillip Rivers both stood at 6-foot-5, and Andrew Luck, Matt Ryan, and Jacoby Brissett were 6-foot-4.

However, there's likely no coach that has achieved enough success in their career to be an NFL head coach that would eliminate a football mind and leader like Young just because he's shorter than they like. In fact, Reich told the media this week that height isn't as big a deal to him as the media has made it seem.

"“Don’t read anything into the fact, I had a high grade on Russell Wilson too," said Reich.

There's a very real chance that Young could become the first quarterback to be drafted No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft out of Alabama since the Washington then-Redskins took Harry Gilmer (Joe Namath went first in the AFL draft) if Wednesday night's dinner went well.