Is Carolina Panthers star Bryce Young a top-10 quarterback? Most would say no. He doesn’t have the stats to back up that claim, and the Panthers are 4-12. Additionally, top-10 quarterbacks typically don’t spend five weeks on the bench during a season.

However, when you look past the stats and shrink the sample size since his return, Young certainly seems close to that upper echelon of QBs. NFL.com Insider Nick Shook compiled the final quarterback power rankings ahead of Week 18, and Young experienced a huge jump.

Last week, Bryce Young was ranked 22nd overall among all quarterbacks. Given all the work spanning last year and his first two starts of 2024, it was hard to really complain about this ranking.

However, if you use recency bias, since the NFL is all about what a player has done recently, Young looks much better. He looks like a borderline top-10 quarterback, and that’s how Shook rated him. Before his final appearance of the season, he moved up 11 places to 11th place.

“If you play the tape from this game and compare it side-by-side with footage from the first two weeks of 2024 or with footage from last year, you may run into the same question I asked last weekend: Did Carolina send a body double for Young before?” Shook said. “He looks like a completely different quarterback now, throwing sharp passes with remarkable confidence and handling pressure like it doesn’t exist at all. Young was on par with Baker Mayfield early in this contest before cooling off, but he still had it. “One of the best games you’ll ever see from a quarterback coming off a tough loss. The Panthers didn’t lose this game because of Young, and he’s confident he’ll have a bright future in Charlotte as long as Dave Canales remains his coach.

Despite being beaten 48-14, Young’s performance in defeat was more than enough to push him further up the rankings. He also had three touchdowns in an overtime win the week before, so the young QB is absolutely heading in the right direction. In his last two games, he scored five touchdowns without a turnover. Since returning from the bench, Young has scored 15 touchdowns and eight turnovers.

Notable names placed ahead of Young this week include Matt Stafford, Kyler Murray, Brock Purdy, Bo Nix, Geno Smith, Russell Wilson, Drake Maye, Caleb Williams, Aaron Rodgers and CJ Stroud.

The Panthers expect to select Texas’ QB prospect in the 2025 NFL Draft

Bryce Young reveals what he did to celebrate New Year’s Eve

The Panthers are getting reinforcements at running back for Week 18

NFL experts make their picks for the Panthers vs. Falcons game