NFL insider reveals Alabama QB Bryce Young had draft's highest score on S2 cognitive test

Former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young might be the best signal caller in the 2023 NFL Draft class and is undoubtedly one of the coolest players under pressure. And a bit of cognitive testing data from the combine, which NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah let slip in an interview on “Around The NFL,” backs up what Young showed on the field.

Young had the highest score in the S2 cognitive test among all the quarterbacks at the 2023 NFL Combine. And unlike the Wunderlic, which seeks to assess baseline intelligence, the S2 test is designed to evaluate how well an individual can process and react to information.

“So it’s a processing test that is now being given to, especially, quarterbacks. It’s been big in baseball. So it’ll be like six shapes pop up and one is different, how different can you identify the one that is different? It’s how quick you can process information. If you think about for baseball, pitch recognition and all that stuff. It’s a very valuable tool. And it’s made its way over to football in the last five or six years,” Jeremiah said.

Jeremiah didn’t reveal what Young scored, but served up comparisons to other high-scoring quarterbacks. Last year, the highest-scoring quarterback in the S2 test was eventual San Francisco 49er Brock Purdy. In the almost decade that S2 tests have been administered to football players, some of the highest scorers have been some of the best quarterbacks, like Patrick Mahomes or Drew Brees.

“Josh Allen was off the charts on it, Mahomes tested off the charts on it. Last year in the entire quarterback class, Brock Purdy had the highest number, had the highest grade on that. This year it’s Bryce Young,” Jeremiah said.

Host Dan Hanzus asked Jeremiah if this was information was public.

“No. But that part is now,” Jeremiah said.

That Young would score well on a test to assess his information processing and reaction is no surprise to those who watched him artfully navigate a pocket, dodging pass rushers hellbent on crushing him while maintaining his eyes downfield.

And Young’s ability in this department stems from something Alabama head coach Nick Saban calls “athletic intuition.”

“Sometimes that gets underrated a little bit,” Saban said to Sports Illustrated in 2018, explaining the trait in the context of then-Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Saban used Brees as an example of someone with high-level athletic intuition.

Saban clearly saw some similar qualities in Young, which the S2 test would seem to confirm.