South Charlotte Today

CHARLOTTE — Bryce Young's first interview after losing the starting quarterback position was consistent with his usual demeanor: matter-of-fact, understated, and accountable. In his initial appearance since being benched in favor of Andy Dalton for the upcoming game against the Raiders, Young attributed his benching to his own performance.

"There's a lot of plays that, for last year and these first two games, for the most part, every snap hit my hands and I didn't do enough with it at the end of the day," he said. "I take accountability for that. There's plays, there's stuff, there's a long list of things that I wish I was better at and I'm going to continue to work to grow and improve on and be better at."

Young emphasized personal responsibility: "I'm always going to look in the mirror. Circumstances are what they are for, not just me, but for everyone. Everyone's dealing with something; everyone has circumstances. If I went out there and played better and we won games, at the end of the day that falls on me. That didn't happen and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

When questioned about his future prospects, Young deferred: "Really, right now I'm a day-by-day type of person," he said. "I've talked about that kind of consistently. Big picture stuff that's out of my hands. That's in God's hands. Organizational stuff that's with the people upstairs."

He also expressed support for Dalton: "I love Andy," he said. "We're super-close and I love to see a lot of my teammates. So it's not hard to root for them, to try to do everything I can to help, to play my role."

Despite an offseason focused on improving protection and offensive weapons, Young's team has struggled offensively this season with only 204 passing yards and 13 points over two games.

"I draw my confidence from the Lord and He's never forsaken me, never will," Young replied when asked if his confidence was shaken after an 0-2 start following a challenging rookie season where he was sacked 62 times in 16 games.

Regarding head coach Dave Canales' decision on Monday: "It's not something that I was necessarily expecting," he said. "It's obviously not something that was great to hear but I respect coach, our organization... Right now that's the situation that it is."