Steve Young is in the midst of touring for his new book My Life Behind The Spiral, but he still made time to join Tolbert and Lund on Thursday.
When asked about the 49ers quarterback situation, Young made it clear the way the 49ers named Colin Kaepernick the starting quarterback after resolving his contract situation did not sit well with him.
“It’s a little unnerving,” Young said. “The whole we didn’t want him to play until we could get this thing wrapped up. Like, we’re in the middle of the season. We’re trying to make things different. Change it. Get people back on track. And we can’t play a guy who we think we probably should’ve played some, if not more already, but we don’t want to because if he gets hurt then we have to pay him. And I’m like, come on. Let’s get this going. So they finally get this done and now he’s playing. That just feels awkward. I don’t necessarily like it.
“Anyone who doesn’t think this doesn’t cut deep, there’s an offseason where there was a lot of wounds. Last year? A ton of wounds, that most human beings would say, ‘Hey, forget it.’”
What about Blaine Gabbert? Young didn’t show much remorse for Chip Kelly’s original choice as the starting quarterback.
“1-4? Your job? You’re cooked,” Young said. “You are lucky to stay on the field. And so that’s what happened. You go 1-4 and you’re not moving the ball, you’re 32nd in passing, you lose your job. Especially when you have a guy sitting there, despite all the conversation that we’re going to have about Colin, who took a team to a Super Bowl. That’s kind of a no-brainer, that you’re going to figure a way to get that guy on the field.”
Could Kelly save Kaepernick? That’s the real answer football fans want to know. Young is more optimistic than most regarding the marriage between San Francisco’s new coach and once-upon-a-time star quarterback.
“My sense is that Chip believes in Colin and his ability to play,” Young said. “(He) likes the things that he does. There’s a postive part of this. I would want to play for him. I would want him to call plays. I would want to be challenged to process the way he asks you to process. I would love the idea that every play has an answer in it. He teaches a philosophy that every play has an answer to it, you have to process it from the shotgun going really fast. I’m hoping he can find a place where Colin feels comfortable, not have to go sideline-to-sideline, can get some rhythm, get the ball out and then use his unique talents to just move the ball right now. If he can do that, he can grow into this system.”
