SANTA CLARA — Calm, cool and collected? Bryce Young makes the placid Brock Purdy look like a rabble-rouser at the podium.
That’s not what the 49ers (7-4) are worried about when they host the Carolina Panthers (6-5) on Monday Night Football (ESPN, 5:15 p.m.)
Young doesn’t have the swag of Baker Mayfield, the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, nor is he an explosive waterbug like Kyler Murray, No. 1 in 2019. He’s not a dropback savant like Joe Burrow (No. 1 in 2020) or have the prototype hardware of Trevor Lawrence (No. 1 in 2021).
Young, 24, has a skillset that more resembles Purdy, the last pick of the 2022 draft, than he does the guy who went No. 1 overall the following year to the Panthers, who have mangled the quarterback position ever since moving on from Cam Newton.
Young is 5-foot-10 and throws with more touch than power. He has just 83 rushing yards in 10 games, and 40 of those came in Week 1. Early indications were the franchise that whiffed on developing acquisitions Sam Darnold and Mayfield under coach Matt Rhule had made another error in judgement.
Surely, Young was a product of the talent surrounding him at Alabama more than a top tier quarterback. The same argument that’s followed Purdy since he took over the 49ers in 2022.
Last season, Young was benched after some uneven performances for veteran Andy Dalton and showed about as much emotion as when he was named the starter.
“He’s not that fiery. I’ve never seen him get too emotional,” said 49ers backup quarterback Mac Jones, an Alabama teammate. “He spends a lot of time on his mental approach and I respect that a lot. He’s working through some things, but he’s a great quarterback.”
Brian Robinson Jr., a 49ers running back and teammate of Young’s at Alabama when he won the Heisman, said it’s in keeping with his personality.
“He’s super smart and tricky and sneaked up as a smaller kind of player,” Robinson said. “He has the ability mentally with his decision-making. He’s one of those guys you can’t sleep on. I know it seems like he’s nonchalant in how he goes about his business, but he’s got everything when it comes to seeing the game.”
Young, 24, is a central figure along with coach Dave Canales in the hopes of resurrecting a franchise which hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2017 and has endured six seasons of 10 or more defeats. Robert Saleh,the 49ers defensive coordinator, worked with Canales on Pete Carroll’s staff in Seattle and can see the difference.
“This organization was in the dumps not so long ago, and they’re slowly climbing out and they’re building it the right way,” Saleh said. “And it’s pretty cool to see.”
Saleh credited Canales with helping develop Young but sees other strengths in the quarterback as well.
“He’s a really, really good processor,” Saleh said. “What’s underrated about him? I do think he’s as tough as nails. He takes some shots standing back there sometimes, but he’ll stand in there, he delivers strikes. He’s definitely an ascending quarterback.”
Young is coming off a career-best game, completing 31 of 45 passes for a franchise record 448 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-17 overtime win against Atlanta. There is a palpable buzz around Charlotte with their first Monday night appearance since September of 2023 against New Orleans.
Not that Young is contributing to a media frenzy.
“I think it’s just an opportunity because it’s the next one,” Young said in his weekly press briefing. “We’re internally motivated. We don’t play to try to convince other people. There will be more cameras, but that’s out of our control. It’s just a schedule thing.”
Young succeeded Jones as Alabama’s quarterback and completed 66.9 percent of his passes for for 4,872 yards, 47 touchdowns and seven interceptions in winning the Heisman and Maxwell awards. He followed that up with 3,328 yards, 32 touchdowns and five interceptions in 12 games and declared for the draft.
Yet he was the consensus top pick despite not having the size/arm strength combination familiar to quarterbacks taken No. 1. Coach Kyle Shanahan detailed the attributes that led to his draft status.
“How good he was at distributing the ball, how good he is at getting out of certain situations in the pocket, changing his arm angle, things like that, plus the level he played at in college,” Shanahan said. “He has all the tools to make the plays that a top guy would make.”
Poised to make his 49ers starting debut Monday, linebacker Curtis Robinson was finishing out his Stanford career when his high school alma mater of Mater Dei-Chula Vista welcomed in Young as a quarterback. Young instantly delivered the 2018 state title with a CIF Open Division win over De La Salle-Concord as a junior.
“It was really cool for me to see,” Robinson said. “It felt like we were right there so much when I was there and we came up short a lot of years. So to watch him and the St. Brown brothers (Amon-Ra and Equanimeous ) kind of take that team to the next level was awesome. I’m a huge fan of Bryce.”
It will be Young’s first start in California since leaving for Alabama.
Carolina has played four previous games at Levi’s, losing to Denver 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 in 2016, beating the 49ers 23-3 in Shanahan’s opener in 2017 and one-sided losses in 2019 (51-13) and 2022 (37-15). The Panthers have a two-pronged running attack Rico Dowdle (833 yards) and Chubba Hubbard (334 yards) and a budding star in receiver Tetairoa McMillan (54 receptions, 748 yards, four touchdowns). They’re only 28th in scoring offense (18.8 points per game) but are 13th in scoring defense (22.6).
Young is completing 62.7 percent of his passes for 1,962 yards with 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions with a pedestrian passer rating of 86.0.
It’s happening for Carolina despite getting a negligible return on their 2022 decision to trade Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers. Carolina received a second, third and fourth-round pick in 2023 plus a fifth-round pick in 2024.
They used the second-round pick with their own No. 9 to trade up for Young and shuffled the other selections and wound up with pass rusher D.J. Johnson, who’s no longer with the team, and nickel back Chau Smith-Wade.
When asked by reporters about what he thought initially of of the McCaffrey trade, cornerback Jaycee Horn said, “I don’t remember” while somehow avoiding to bite through his lip.
General manager John Lynch said not to judge the Panthers on their performances of past seasons.
“We have a good team coming in here in Carolina. I think people hear that and they say, `well this is the Carolina Panthers, but this is a team that’s won five of seven,” Lynch said on KNBR-680. ” I believe they’re hot. They’re feeling themselves a little bit.”
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