Steve Young to Kaepernick: Trust legs more than arm

SAN FRANCISCO -- Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has some advice for 49ers backup-turned-starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick for Monday night's game against the Chicago Bears.Granted, Young, a 49ers-backup-turned-starter, would not have taken his same advice when he first got off the sideline to replace Joe Montanta."Don't throw anything that you're not sure of," Young said. "This is not the night to try new things against these guys. But it is the night to use your legs, run for first downs, maybe a touchdown, key conversions, trust your legs more than your arm tonight just to get things going."Kaepernick will make his first NFL start on Monday with Alex Smith declared inactive due to a concussion.MAIOCCO: 49ers key matchup No. 1 -- Colin Kaepernick vs. Jason Campbell"Here's the bottom line," Young said. "You cannot take this game away from your teammates. This is good team. Maybe even a great team. You can't be the reason that they don't have a chance to win this game. That's the fundamental rookie, young player's mantra."Once you get past that, you can move on to being neutral or the reason you win."Young said he would not have taken his own advice when he first started for the 49ers because he had more experience. Young played a couple years of professional football in the USFL before starting 19 games over two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He started three games in his first season with the 49ers in 1987.
"I had a lot of games under my belt," Young said. "(I felt like) I got to make hay now. Neutral is not the place to hang around here. But I don't think he's there yet. I don't think he needs to feel that way. I was definitely in a different boat."When asked about the NFL's concussion protocol, Young said he does not believe any system would be perfect because there's no way to measure the gradations of concussions how they impact everyone differently."With 99 percent of knee injuries, you can take an MRI and you know what's wrong," Young said. But with concussions, Young said, "Even the guy who has it is not sure."Young retired after the 1999 season after sustaining a severe concussion in the 49ers' third game of the season.