NEW ORLEANS — When you watched Panthers quarterback Bryce Young navigate his way through Radio Row at the Super Bowl this year, the thing that stood out wasn't anything he said or anyone he talked to.

The thing that stood out was that he was there at all.

But the difference in Young at this year's Super Bowl festivities and last year's is as stark as the difference in Young's play in 2023 and the second half of 2024.

Last year in Las Vegas, he was there, showing up to do his promotional appearances dutifully, but he didn't make much of a ripple. This year in New Orleans, he was everywhere, making an extended lap through the media center, available at a level we're not accustomed to seeing from him.

And it seemed ... normal.

Of course, he's still Bryce Young, so it's still very understated and polite. So when he's asked if he thinks people look at him differently this year, he just shrugs.

"I wouldn't be able to tell you," Young said. "I don't really know. I don't really look at it that way or think about it that much."

Of course, the difference is obvious to others.

Former Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme was among the many (so many) people to interview Young this week, during an appearance for the team's YouTube channel. But as much as the answers he gave then, Delhomme (who sees Young often while calling games on the Panthers Radio Network) noticed the same kind of subtle differences in Young that showed up on the field.

Delhomme was walking between some of his many appearances, and it's easy for him to get distracted. As a native of Breaux Bridge, La., he's a celebrity in his own right here, with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry among the many who stopped by to talk. But Delhomme was looking at his phone, and not where he was going when he felt someone playfully poke at him and tell him to pay attention. It was Young, laughing and cracking jokes.

"It's just different, right?" Delhomme said. "You can just see it. You feel it, you know."

After talking to former Panthers center Ryan Kalil on set, Delhomme was reminded of another story. When Kalil was drafted in the second round in 2007, they had an established veteran center in Justin Hartiwg. So Kalil spent the year filling in and waiting for his turn to take over in a lost season in which Delhomme was hurt early, and they ended up with David Carr and Vinny Testaverde starting games.

But in 2008, things were different. First, their quarterback was back from Tommy John surgery. But with rookie running back Jonathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams in the backfield, they were running the ball so well it became their personality. Late in the year, on Monday Night Football against the Buccaneers, it was going so well (they ran for 299 yards that night), Kalil got lathered up and started yelling, "We're a bad-ass offense, and this is what we're going to do on every play."

Delhomme and left tackle Jordan Gross, who lived on the same comic wavelength, cracked up. "Both of us, at the same time, we're like, whoa, tough guy," Delhomme said with a laugh. Kalil then swore at them and told them to get back in the huddle. It was a funny story, but it was also a moment where a center was feeling himself emerging as a leader. And that was a role Kalil would continue to play for a decade.

"It was the moment he arrived," Delhomme said. "It was like, OK, he felt comfortable. Bryce told us yesterday, you know, yeah, we beat the Saints, we beat the Giants, then at the bye week he goes, 'I took a deep breath for a little bit, and I was like, you know what, I'm comfortable.'

"It's like that comfort zone. But it's funny because it was like that story with Ryan. It's November-ish of his second year, and you know, because there's so much put on him, he seems different. He's known. He can have success. In the last game of the year, he was remarkable, and now it's the confidence, and now it's time to go. I know I can play. Maybe there were questions, and you've got to answer these media questions, but it's the confidence of knowing I can play."

And there were a lot of questions, as he made his way through appearance after appearance. Some were very football-centric, some were personality-heavy, and some were fun (he even taped a spot on the Nickelodeon set, where earlier in the week, SpongeBob and Patrick Star were hamming it up). He did all the shows, and seemed as comfortable as he gets in those situations.

Dan Patrick teased him about the picture of walking into training camp with his backpack on, "and it looked like the first day of school," and transitioned to a football question about the dangers of being short and potentially having passes batted down.

"I did see that photo," Young said with a laugh. "I don't mind at all. I've seen some hilarious stuff about my height. It's fine. I'm used to it. I embrace it. I only know one way to play football, so I've never had to adjust, or say this is way different. This is how I know to play."

Oh, also, Bryce Young only had one pass batted down this season, according to Pro Football Reference. This was tied for 45th in a 32-team league. Andy Dalton had five. The much-taller Sam Darnold had 10, and the basically-the-same-size Baker Mayfield at 14 (sixth in the league). The 6-foot-3 Cooper Rush led the league with 17 in just eight starts.

Young found his window.

Interviewing Bryce Young can be tough at times. He's polite but not naturally gregarious the way Delhomme is. He also walks into many of them with a plan. So the great ones like Patrick try to move him off his spot sometimes, and Young handled it all with aplomb (much in the same way he handled a lot of adversity this year).

But there's also a depth there in addition to the ease with which he's handling himself.

Bryce Young is a basketball guy. He knows ball. As the kids say, he's a ball-knower.

When he came to Carolina, there was a conversation about growing up playing AAU basketball with fellow quarterback CJ Stroud, so he was asked for comps for their games. This was his rookie year, so he could have pandered and compared himself to Hornets star LaMelo Ball, or taken the low-hanging fruit and said Warriors legend and local product Steph Curry.

Instead, he compared himself to Cavaliers point guard Darius Garland, a year before Cleveland really became one of the best teams in the league, and compared Stroud to Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr.

"Like, he can hit contested shots," Young said with a nod, getting into the line of questioning. "See, y'all start asking me basketball questions; that's when I start getting excited."

It was an esoteric answer but also very telling because he didn't just take the easy way out. So, since he's a West Coast kid and a Lakers fan growing up, it made sense to ask him about the recent late-night trade in which the Lakers acquired superstar guard Luka Doncic for center Anthony Davis, the kind of deal for which there is no NFL comp.

"I was at home, and my dad called me at like 11:30; I was like, Everything good?" Young said with a laugh. "And he was like, 'Did you see what happened? Actually, he asked me, is this real, because Luka, that doesn't sound real?' So I looked it up, and yeah, it's real."

Young calls himself "just a fan," but he's tapped into the game. It's not unusual to see him courtside or to see him talking ball with the guys who play.

"It's just like the business is crazy," Young said of the trade that shocked the NBA. "Like it's just professional sports, you never think something like that would happen, obviously. So yeah, it is crazy. It just came out of nowhere."

Stewart was also on set with Delhomme this week and has spent enough time around Young to see him develop.

After their interview on Thursday, Stewart spent a good bit of time talking to Young, telling him to embrace these kinds of experiences. As they talked, a guy brushed past them carrying a big shiny plate, which was actually the Bundesliga Meisterschale, the trophy for Germany's top soccer league. Because, of course that happened. At the Super Bowl, you get kind of used to random and out-of-context appearances. If Carrot Top walks by, you don't even blink because, sure, of course he did.

But Stewart knows about this because when he played, he wasn't always a media darling (or particularly easy to deal with, actually). Now, he's got a podcasting career of his own and has the kind of perspective to know he might have missed something the first time through.

"I was this way; I didn't trust the media when I played because it's like, hey, you're going to say something good about me today, say something bad about me tomorrow," Stewart said. "So I'm going to leave y'all out of it so that way we don't have any problems.

"And so that might be a little bit of it too, like I don't want to ever be too high, never too low, just let me be here. And I think now he's learning how to live within the waves, right? I tell my daughter all the time, dance with the waves, because the waves are going to come. So just go dancing."

And Young was more comfortable in the water this year, moving gracefully through settings that would have been foreign a year ago. (The law of supply and demand also applies to the media landscape, as a quarterback who didn't distinguish himself on a 2-15 team didn't get as many requests a year ago.)

But beyond this week being a chance for Young to become more of a brand and be more visible on a national stage, it's also a chance for him to grow as a leader of a football team.

Stewart played with a quarterback who was much more at home in front of a camera, so he knows. Sliding by Cam Newton's "Fourth and 1" set this week with former teammate Greg Olsen and coach Ron Rivera was a cool chance to catch up, but it also gave Stewart a chance to see some parallels.

Newton was always a star but wasn't always sure how to handle the attention that came with it. His first "entertainer and icon" interview at the scouting combine before he was drafted in 2011 hung around his neck for years. But Newton grew into his role and carried others along with him on some memorable rides, including a 15-1 record and a Super Bowl trip 10 years ago.

So when Stewart considers what Young's going through now, he sees the quarterback in the early stages of a long process.

"I think he's absolutely coming out of his shell," Stewart said of Young. "Not that he was particularly in any shell, but he is, I think, more aware of the responsibilities of a professional quarterback. Which is to have some sense of responsibility to share, right? To be present, to be available. And not just tucked away in your own world, right? And you know that's a comfort place where we like to be sometimes, where you feel safe, you know it's a controlled environment, and you can stay focused. But the more you can put yourself in uncomfortable situations and still acknowledge the social responsibilities of a quarterback, right?

"When your teammates see you at stuff like the Super Bowl or doing media and talking about you or the success of the team and where the team is, giving shout-outs to certain teammates and stuff like that, is basically you putting on for the squad. You're representing. That's our quarterback, and that's what I think is really good for him to be here and soak all that in because he is the face of the Carolina Panthers. He is the quarterback."

And like Delhomme, Stewart said he started seeing in the second half of last season how the same ease that came through in so many interviews this week was also showing up on the field.

It's a chicken-egg situation. Is Young more relaxed now because he's playing well, or is he playing well because he's more relaxed?

"He's the guy, and how he's played the last several games of the season, he stepped on that field exactly like he's that guy," Stewart said. "And I think you know he's been wanting to do that, but I just think now, after everything that's transpired, I think you know that he trusts what's happening and the decision-makers. I think it's respected when they do the hard thing, right?

"And as all the other players in the locker room, you respect it. And when you respect it, you can trust it. And then once you go through the fire and you can come out and have some success, you trust it even more, right?"

Stewart grinned when he talked about it, because the progress is there to see. Steps away, Young walked by in the background, dapping up players who crossed his path, smiling and laughing on his way to the next in a long line of appearances.