In the third quarter of Carolina’s final game of the season against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young threw a pass toward tight end Tommy Tremble in the end zone, then turned his back on the flying football and signaled for a touchdown.

“It was definitely not planned,” Young said. “It was just confidence in Tommy. I knew he was open, so when I threw it, I knew he was going to catch it.”

But did Young’s gesture also show a rediscovered confidence in himself?

In a season where he went to the bench for five games, Young comes out of the 2024 campaign the same way he came out of his rookie season – as Carolina’s franchise QB. But after the Panthers defeated the Atlanta Falcons 44-38 in overtime, there’s a whole different feeling around the former Alabama All-American than there was when he completed the 2023 season.

“How about Bryce?” Carolina coach Dave Canales said after Sunday’s game. “Being able to call whatever I wanted to call on the call sheet, knowing that he was going to find a positive outcome – he was going to find a throwaway, a big play, a scramble for a touchdown, just the different things — and how freeing that is.”

After the Panthers picked Young at No. 1 in the 2023 NFL Draft, he started 16 games as a rookie. Carolina won two of them, and Young finished the season with the worst passing-efficiency rating among the NFL’s regular quarterbacks.

Two games into the 2024 season, Young was on the bench, and veteran Andy Dalton was in as the Panthers’ starting quarterback.

Young got a second chance when Dalton sustained a thumb injury in a traffic accident on Oct. 22. Young started the final 10 games of the season, Carolina won four times, and the second-year QB threw 15 touchdown passes (against six interceptions) and ran for six TDs.

“Definitely a blessing,” Young said of his second season. “This year, it’s been something — a year not like I’ve ever had before. But God doesn’t make mistakes. I’m super grateful for just the path he had me on. And for me, it’s super encouraging.”

Young finished the 2024 season with the best game of his career. He completed 25-of-34 passes for 251 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions and ran for 24 yards and two touchdowns on five carries in a game the Falcons had to win to have a chance to reach the NFL playoffs. Young’s passing-efficiency rating of 123.5 was the highest of his career.

“I’d say we’ll take it week-to-week, but we got no more weeks,” Canales said when asked about Young’s status with the team heading toward the 2025 NFL season.

Canales was poking fun at himself. The coach said after each of Young’s first three starts following his return to the lineup that the next game’s starting QB would be determined during that week’s practice.

“Bryce is our quarterback,” Canales said after his joke. “I’m so proud of the way that he took the challenge, and he just grew every week. New lessons, new things, he applied it to his game. …

“It’s huge. It’s a great feeling. It allows us to look at the whole roster to see what the investments need to be. It helps us to think about free agency and the draft with a lens knowing we got our guy and now we can just build this team with the right mentality.”

Young’s first touchdown on Sunday came on a 2-yard run with 10:47 left in the first half as the Panthers took a 10-3 lead.

Young threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to running back Miles Sanders to put Carolina in front 17-10 with 2:48 left in the first half.

Young’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Tremble with 10:43 left in the third quarter tied the score at 24-24.

Young’s 9-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver David Moore with 1:02 left in the third quarter gave the Panthers a 31-24 lead.

Young’s 10-yard touchdown run with 4:01 left put Carolina in front 38-31 with 4:01 left in the fourth quarter.

Atlanta kept its season alive with a touchdown with 46 seconds left in the fourth quarter. But the Falcons never got the football in overtime.

After Young won the overtime coin toss with a heads call, the Panthers drove 70 yards in 10 plays for a 1-yard touchdown run by Sanders. Young went 5-of-5 for 56 yards on the series.

“Super grateful for the stat line and all that,” Young said, “but in reality, it’s the team that makes that happen.”

As it turned out, the loss didn’t matter for the Falcons. Atlanta also needed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to lose on Sunday to claim the NFC South crown. But the Bucs rallied for a 27-19 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.