Bryce Young's numbers since benching suggest he's secured his spot in the NFL

These are solid numbers in any context - but especially when you consider Young's situation, which includes one of the league's worst wide receiver rooms, a total lack of help at tight end and a head coach who regresses into preseason mode calling plays every other game.

Young doesn't have the firepower around him to blow away any team in the NFL - the Atlanta Falcons in Week 3 were playing so poorly they don't even count. What matters in the absence of that great supporting cast is that Young gets the job done when he needs to and consistently makes plays when they matter most.

That's the element that's helped Young produce 12 game winning drives in 14 of his career wins at this level. That says a lot about the Panthers, but also about Young, who has a low-key but still legitimate clutch gene in him.

It's a tall task to upset the Seattle Seahawks, who are one of the greatest teams to come along in the last 50 years going by DVOA. If the Panthers can get it done, it will be the third time this season that they will have upended the No. 1 seed in the conference.

That happening once can be written off as an accident - twice it's more difficult. If Young can and the Panthers can pull it off again it will be proof of a pattern. This Carolina team may be inconsistent, but they're just dangerous enough to beat anybody on any given Sunday.