Bryce Young of
Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) and Alabama is the second former MaxPreps National Player of the Year to be taken with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft after being selected Thursday by the Carolina Panthers.
Young joins
Kyler Murray of
Allen (Texas), who won MaxPreps National POY honors in 2013 and 2014. In 2019, Murray was selected first overall by the Arizona Cardinals.
Along with D.J. Uiagalelei of
St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), Young shared MaxPreps National Player of the Year in 2019 after throwing for 4,528 yards and 58 touchdowns. He added 10 touchdowns on the ground as Mater Dei finished the season ranked No. 2 in the country.
Bryce Young of Mater Dei was drafted first overall by the Carolina Panthers during the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday. Young joins Kyler Murray as past MaxPreps National Football Player of the Year award winners to become first overall pick. (Photo: Louis Lopez)
During his junior season in 2018, Young led the Monarchs to the national championship behind 3,846 passing yards and 39 touchdown passes against just six interceptions.
One of Young's signature games that season was a top-five matchup against IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) that the Monarchs won 28-24. Trailing 24-21 with three minutes to play, he led Mater Dei on a 75-yard scoring drive capped with the 5-yard go-ahead touchdown with 1:09 to play.
Young played his first two high school seasons at
Cathedral (Los Angeles) and threw for 1,445 yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman. The next season he had 41 passing touchdowns against three interceptions and was a MaxPreps Sophomore All-American. Six times that season he threw for more than 300 yards.
The newest Panther arrived at Mater Dei as a junior and finished his career with 18 games of 300-plus yards, including a 538-yard, seven-touchdown performance as a senior.
Young finished his high school career with 13,250 passing yards and 152 touchdown passes while completing 69.8 percent of his attempts.
The Southern California standout continued his career at Alabama where he became the third Mater Dei player to win the Heisman Trophy joining John Huarte and Matt Leinart. Only five college programs have produced more Heisman winners than Mater Dei.
Thursday marks the third time Carolina has selected a quarterback in the first round. In 1995, Kerry Collins of Penn State was drafted fifth overall and by his second year, he had the Panthers in the NFC Championship game. Cam Newton was the first overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft and the Heisman Trophy winner took Carolina to Super Bowl 50 in a MVP season.
