Bryce Young is back as the Carolina Panthers‘ starting quarterback, and he is fresh off his best performance of the season. It was an encouraging showing — one that resulted in only the Panthers’ second win — for a young quarterback who was previously benched.

Highest-Graded Quarterbacks in Week 9

Young finished Week 9 against the New Orleans Saints with a 77.8 PFF overall grade, his highest grade this season and the third-highest of his career. His stat line doesn’t look overly impressive, but a major reason for that is his two big-time throws being dropped and intercepted — two unlucky plays that would have made his box score better reflect his performance.

There’s no hiding that the Panthers’ offense has struggled with Young under center. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick looked lost and broken in his first two starts of 2024, but after five weeks as a backup, he seems to have found his confidence again, putting together his two best performances of the season since returning to helm the offense.

It took until the second quarter for the Panthers’ offense to get going in Week 9, but a big third-down conversion led to their first touchdown of the game.

The Saints’ defense shows a pressure look pre-snap and then drops out of it. Young never looks at the screen on the bottom part of the field because New Orleans drops out and plays zone. With the linebacker bailing quickly to his spot, Young knows he’ll have the dig open. He makes a great throw to protect his receiver from the safety for a first down.

Carolina and Young have struggled to generate explosive gains through the air since he was drafted, owning the lowest percentage of passing plays over 15 yards in the NFL during that time. In the past, those problems could’ve been placed at the feet of the quarterback — but not on Sunday.

In the above play, the Panthers are in a great spot to take a shot downfield, with the ball just past midfield on second-and-short. They bring an extra lineman on the field and come out under center in what is technically a two-tight end set. A hard play-action fake gets them essentially two receivers running deep crossers with the safety having to pick one of them. It’s a great play call that creates a rather easy decision for Young. Whichever receiver the safety picks, Young throws to the opposite one. He still has to make the throw, which he does perfectly, but what would’ve been his second passing touchdown of the game turns into a drop.

The second potential explosive passing play also ended brutally after a great process, proving once again why judging a quarterback solely on interceptions doesn’t provide the full picture.

The Panthers get exactly what they want on this play: a wide receiver one-on-one running a double move. That usually results in disaster for a defense, and it nearly did for the Saints. Young sprints out at the snap, giving him plenty of time to hit the double move. He ends up throwing a perfect ball while on the run into an extremely tight window. However, the ball is ripped out of the receiver’s hands at the last minute, resulting in one of the more unfortunate interceptions you’ll see all season.

Later, with the Panthers down by five and needing a touchdown to take the lead, Young delivers his most impressive play of the game on a huge third-and-10.

The Saints show another pressure look that they eventually drop out of. The Panthers run what is essentially a dagger concept to the bottom of the screen, with one receiver running up the seam and the other running an in-breaking route following it. Young knows exactly where to go with the ball based on the coverage presented. He knows the seam route will drag one of the safeties out of position and that Xavier Legette will have a leverage advantage on his in-breaking route. He still has to beat the underneath linebacker, though, and he does so with incredible anticipation.

Young loads up to throw this ball while Legette is still on the numbers, before he has even started his break. A quarterback needs a ton of confidence to make this throw, and Young is rewarded with a massive third-down conversion, leading to the eventual game-winning touchdown.

This type of performance is a massive step in the right direction for the former No. 1 overall pick. Young looked confident in the pocket, and if he can build on this performance and continue to get better, the Panthers have the long-term centerpiece of their offense.