CHARLOTTE — As a defensive player, there are few things more frustrating to Nick Scott than jumping offsides — "Because that's controllable."

But as a Panthers teammate of quarterback Bryce Young, there were few things he enjoyed more than seeing Young draw the Eagles offsides and give a quick point with a huge grin at the free first down.

"Oh, he definitely had fun with it, which I love that," Scott said. "I love seeing Bryce in that Fun Bryce mode and looking good."

Young's had more fun this year than in the past, for a lot of reasons, and not just because he drew that penalty on the Eagles, which became a hit on social media.

He's also dealing in a lot of ways this season. His previous career-high for passing yards was 3,011 last year, and he's already past halfway there after five games (1,547), putting him on pace to do some amazing things.

If he throws for 250 yards and a touchdown this week (and remember, his 281 against the Eagles were a season low), he'd be the first quarterback in franchise history to do that in eight straight games, including the playoffs.

He'd also be leading the league in a lot of stats if not for the early bye, but he's still leading the league in passing yards per game (309.8), and is third in completions of 25 yards or more with 15.

Since Young is driven by process, this doesn't seem like a recent occurrence to those closest to him, but rather the steady accumulation of experience that led him to this point.

"It's a lot of the things that just show up for quarterbacks the longer they play," Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. "And it's the information you're taking in on the front end, the information you're taking in live, during the plays in the pass game, in the run game, making sure we're getting to the right places and all that, but it's just this level of comfort that I feel from him. And it's kind of twofold, really: it's the growth in our system and this system becoming Bryce's."

And that's what those who have been around him are seeing.

Veteran wideout David Moore just grinned when asked about Young's increasing comfort, having seen the growth in real time.

"I think he's just believing in his game a lot more than what he brings to the NFL, which is a lot, and he's showing it now," Moore said. "He's been showing spurts of it, and now it's just going to become a thing where it's like, all right, BY, this is what you expected because you are playing outrageous."

When asked if he thought Young recognized that, Moore said he did, because recognizing things is kind of Young's deal. So when the Eagles flinched, and his guys didn't, there was that Eureka moment they all enjoyed.

"You actually can tell he's a lot more confident; you could tell by the way he just approaches everything," Moore said. "He's really growing into himself. You get to a point where you know your receivers, you know what the coaches are expecting, and then you get to a point where you are expecting something of yourself, which is where I kind of think he's at now.

"He expects himself to go out there and ball like he's been doing. And then with the people that he has behind him and beside him, it's kind of like it just makes it that easier, and it just helps him kind of just go out there, really play free. He's really having fun. You can tell he's smiling all over the place; he's calling stuff out himself, and you know, it's just great to see.

"He's just bringing his energy; it's just fun, you know what I mean? It's kind of like he's a kid again. That's the football that you want to play. Not everything's so serious, so you know what I mean, yeah, he's, it's kind of, I'm, I'm sure he would say his time now is much more relaxing, much more just smooth than previous years, and he deserves that for sure."

Of course, Wednesday is his press conference day, perhaps Young's least favorite time of the week. When he walks behind the lectern, he has a plan he rarely deviates from. So as he prepares to make his 50th start in the league, you're not going to get a lot of long-range from Young in this setting.

"I really don't like to look back that often," Young said. "We've week to week looked at stuff that I want to improve at, look at stuff we want to be consistent with. That's kind of always our mindset. It hasn't been much reflecting, especially now it's Wednesday, so you know we have to do everything we can to prepare for the Bucs, so it's really all I'm focused on."

He nearly broke character when asked if he'd rather run for a first down himself or take a free one on a penalty, but quickly gathered himself.

"They both moved the chains, so I'd say it's about equal," Young said with a grin.

But mostly, he's a serious guy, at least on Wednesdays.

"I think that it's not as much like a joy or like a happiness thing," he replied when efforts were made to dig deeper into the GIF-eating grin. "I think that there's a level of focus that I want to make sure that I'm maintaining; that's been something that's always been big for me. Just monitor myself, and I think I know myself enough to know where that line is of like having fun and being relaxed but being focused and not being, say, silly or something like that.

"So, yeah, of course there's a place that you want to make sure you're still being able to perform at the highest level, but, yeah, knowing myself, yeah, it has to kind of get to that point for me to have to dial it back so I'm always kind of regulating and just wanting to be best for the next play."

And with the Panthers offense playing at a high level recently, Young's also careful to check himself, which he constantly does.

"Of course you're always self-scouting, you're always looking at the week before and figuring out, OK, how can we, how is this something we can tighten up?" he said. "How is this something that we can execute at a higher level, so of course there's never any complacency. And again, it's early in the year; I think none of us would say we've ever played a perfect game of football. It's almost impossible. There's always something to go back and watch and correct off film. That's the beauty of what we get to do. You're always trying to find that next thing to master. So there's a ton of improvements still left to be had."

Specifically, there were last week's penalties (a team-record 149 yards worth), but Young's not getting any more detailed than that in a press conference.

That wouldn't be any fun.

"No need to bore anyone with the details of specifics," he laughed. "For sure there's some others, but that's for us to iron out."