In true Bryce Young fashion, even when the spotlight is on him, he’d rather it wasn’t.
The Panthers quarterback earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors after throwing for 448 yards in the overtime win against the Falcons, a performance that shattered Cam Newton’s single game franchise record and added several other notable achievements.
His award makes him the fifth Panthers player this season to take home a weekly honor, the first team in the league to reach that mark. The previous winners were Rico Dowdle in Week 5, Ryan Fitzgerald in Week 6, Sam Martin in Week 7, and Tre’von Moehrig in Week 9.
Carolina has not had five different weekly award winners in one season since 2017, when Newton, Julius Peppers, Luke Kuechly, Jonathan Stewart, and Damiere Byrd all earned recognition.
You didn’t want me to say it first, but I’m still going to repeat it. Individual awards, that’s not what I’m after, Young said on Sunday when asked about surpassing Newton’s record. It doesn’t mean anything. I’m grateful that we won; we had the most important stat today, and it was a win. That’s all that matters. But again, being able to be mentioned with Cam, with a player of that caliber who I have so much respect for, it’s definitely an honor.
Still, his week was undeniably special.
Along with setting the Panthers’ all time mark, Young is the only quarterback in the NFL this year to top 400 yards without an interception. He is also just the fifth player in league history under 25 to post at least 30 completions, 425 passing yards, three touchdown passes, and no interceptions in one game, joining Drew Bledsoe, Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes twice, and C. J. Stroud.
He also recorded his tenth game winning drive, the most by any quarterback since he entered the league in 2023.
Young becomes the fifth Panthers quarterback to be named player of the week, joining Steve Beuerlein, Kerry Collins, Jake Delhomme, and Cam Newton, who won it ten times. He is the first Carolina quarterback to receive the honor since Newton in Week 7 of 2018.
All of this came while he was dealing with an ankle injury that sent him to the locker room for heavy taping and left him noticeably limping afterward.
Just the resilience, an opportunity to show his teammates that he wants to be out there with those guys to win that game with them, head coach Dave Canales said about Young returning to the field. And I think if Bryce was up here, he’d tell you first and foremost, whatever it takes to win and just try to find a way to contribute, try to find a way to affect the game, and he certainly was able to do that, getting himself back out there and battling through some stuff to be available for us and coming up with some big plays when we needed it.