Bryce Young’s benching has been the juiciest story of the early NFL season. He said she said, he did, gossiped back and forth fed families for days between weeks two and three. His replacement, Andy Dalton, performed admirably in his limited action, but everyone knew Dalton’s time as a starter was limited.

A traffic accident opened the door for Young to reclaim his role as the team’s starting quarterback Carolina Panthersand with his impressive performance in a win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, Young may have it back in the long run. After the win, Young spoke with CBS’s Amanda Balionis about how his time on the pin helped him succeed this afternoon.

“Just getting more comfortable in the system. We spend all our time just watching, growing, trying to do mental repetitions. Trying to take ownership of the system. We still have improvements to make, but you know we’re grateful for that. one.”

This whole situation has worked out nicely for first-year head coach Dave Canales. He was brought to Carolina to “save” Bryce Young’s career, and if that task was the only measuring stick by which Canales and his crew were to be judged, they unequivocally failed after two weeks. However, Young’s play in weeks eight and nine showed glimpses of the potential profile of being selected first overall in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Young was calm, cool and collected against the Saints. The incessant and unnecessary pocket manipulation that plagued Young’s ability to play quarterback earlier in the season was nowhere to be found. The sophomore signal caller stood up in clean pockets all afternoon and threw strikes at all levels of the field. Young threw his fair share of short (gliding) passes, but he also connected on six (should have been seven) attempts further from ten meters down. The bar for success is low for Young due to his limited history in the NFL, but he absolutely cleared it today.

It’s unclear whether Young will get the nod when the Carolina Panthers cross the Atlantic Ocean to face the New York Giants in Germany next week, but in this writer’s opinion, he’s absolutely earned it. The jumps Young made from Week Two to Week Eight, then Week Eight to Week Nine are worth building off of. Give him another start next Sunday, take his re-evaluation week to re-evaluate his franchise position and continue to build from there.

NFL Insider reports the Panthers are still getting calls about QB Bryce Young

Panthers great Greg Olsen shuts down the NFL’s QB development issue

Cam Newton weighs in on the Bryce Young or Andy Dalton debate

Several Panthers players designated targets for the Eagles at the trade deadline