Better for a No. 1 overall pick to bloom late rather than never, right?

That's the path Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young is on, having finally broken through in his fourth season in the NFL after floundering through much of his first three.

Sunday's 25-14 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday saw Young chuck for 281 more passing yards, which keeps him on pace to destroy the franchise single-season record of 4,436. He also tallied his 10th and 11th touchdown passes of the year, setting a team record for most scores over the first five games of a campaign.

So, what's different about Young this year? There are complex schematic answers to that question, but the simplest answer may be that he's just playing with more confidence than ever before.

Here's John Breech at CBS Sports making that case after giving the Panthers a 'B' grade for their Week 6 victory:

. . . Bryce Young is playing with more confidence than ever and you can see it every time he drops back to pass. The Panthers had a well-rounded passing attack, with three different players finishing with at least four receptions, including Tommy Tremble, who had two TD catches. This wasn't pretty, but it was a solid win for a Carolina team coming out of the bye.

It's not like we hadn't seen Young get into a rhythm and start feeling himself before. We saw brilliance out of him in 2024 against the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers and in 2025 against the Atlanta Falcons and Los Angeles Rams.

The difference, though, is that the swagger Young showed in those games is now a regular thing. He's no longer going on tilt if he misses a couple of throws or panicking if he sees quick pressure in the pocket—and there's been no shortage of those instances thus far.

No quarterback plays great the entire year, and Young will likely have a couple of mediocre games this season. But this new version of himself is who Young is now, and that raises the ceiling far beyond anything we've previously witnessed from No. 9.