ESPN analyst Steve Young will be in the broadcast booth for the 49ers’ season opener on Monday night against the Rams and he’s excited to have a prime spot for the start of the Chip Kelly era.

“I can’t wait to see it, to be honest with you,” Young said in a phone interview. “I want to see it up close and personal because I think Chip -- I want him in the NFL. I like the way he looks at the game. He’s always innovating and trying new things. I want to see it. I hope they just don’t turn the ball over faster and the defense has to play more plays.”

I spoke to Young for this story on Kelly, his no-huddle offense and the 49ers, which focuses on this: Can good coaching and a solid scheme overcome a lack of offensive talent?

Here are the highlights of the conversation with Young, who will serve as the analyst alongside play-by-play man Chris Berman on Monday:

Chip Kelly is a respected offensive mind, but the 49ers don’t have much offensive talent. Can good coaching compensate for a lack of playmakers?

SY: … In college (the no-huddle) was clearly a big differentiator. Defenses aren’t nearly as athletic. They don’t practice as much. Something like speed of play can be a big deal. I always thought great offenses should go faster. Not good offenses should go slower. The problem with scheme in this situation - if it’s just speed of plays, I’m just going to go faster -- that means you have to have the processing power, especially at the quarterback position.

And everyone has to be on the same page. And that takes some time. That’s not just overnight, especially in the NFL because of the athletic nature of the defenses. You need scheme, which Chip has. But the first year out of the gate? Is scheme going to help the 49ers make up for some lack of cohesion and talent? It’s going to be tough. The scheme of just running more plays faster can double back on you if you’re not proficient. And that’s a real risk. Clearly the Eagles defense was on the field the most in the NFL. If you’re going to run a lot of plays, you better score a lot of points.

If you go three-and-out in 30 seconds, there’s that much more time for more series. If you think about the Eagles defense being on the field for two more series a game … that’s OK if you’re scoring enough points so that doesn’t matter. But I think with proficiency at quarterback and some real processing power, it can be a real benefit. There’s no question. I always wanted to go faster because you can put a lot of pressure on defenses, especially when you know what you’re doing.

I like (Kelly’s) offensive mind. He’s innovative. It’s not just about speed, but what they do as far as putting defenses in a jam. But I just think it takes time to be really proficient at this. Now, the Eagles proved right of the gate (in 2013) to be able to do that. So I give him a lot of credit for that. I think defenses around the league have seen it now. It’s gone through a cycle of a couple of years, so they’re not as freaked out about it. It’s kind of like the zone read in 2012: Robert Griffin and (Colin Kaepernick) just went crazy. Then defenses caught up and it’s, ‘OK, what are you going to do next?’ I think it could be as risky as there could be as much benefit. So it puts a lot of pressure on Chip to come up with something. If they are a below-average-talent offense, what can you do? I think it’s worth the risk.

This story is based on the idea the 49ers have a severe lack of offensive talent. I guess I should ask you: Do you agree with that?

SY: A lot of what you get done in the NFL is by perception. They perceive you as really talented, and they worry about you. You’ve got to come out of the locker room with something. My point is, they’re not coming out of the locker room with a real scary group. That doesn’t mean they’re not scary. It just it makes that more difficult to prove it.

So without that perception, that kind of causes defenses to lean in, takes air out of the system and, I think, leads to fewer options. I think the way Chip has to attack it is to … I think that Chip intends to lead the league in rushing as part of this philosophy. What’s the advantage (for the 49ers)? It might not be in the passing game, but if it can be in the running game … The way to attack this with the roster they have is to have an above-average running game. If the 49ers are going to be average or above average, they’re going to have to have a top-10 running game. And I don’t think that’s impossible because I think scheme will help them.

I can’t wait to see it, to be honest with you. I want to see it up close and personal because I think Chip -- I want him in the NFL. I like the way he looks at the game. He’s always innovating and trying new things. I want to see it. I hope they just don’t turn the ball over faster and the defense has to play more plays.

What about the idea that the no-huddle doesn’t allow defenses to substitute and can get them in a defense they don’t want to be in. They can get on their heels and emphasize not getting beat deep, which leads to easy short and intermediate throws?

SY: By putting pressure on defenses they can’t get complex. They can’t blitz out of it. In time, defenses will respond where they can run defenses as fast as you can run offenses. But it’s not there yet. So there’s an advantage.

And if you can get a quarterback that can process quickly, there’s a lot of open guys intermediate, short. High-percentage completions, get it going, put pressure on defenses. Couple completions - 5 yards, 8 yards -- and then you hit a big one. The West Coast (offense) was trying to make it simpler and faster and this is kind of an extension on that. So, yes, I think that can happen.

The problem is if you don’t have a quarterback that can process it that fast. He gets confused and he’s throwing it all around and it’s like ‘What is going on?’ And it’s the first season. Who is used to running plays that quickly? ‘Well we’ve had 30 days. I had 32 plays in the preseason. I’m ready to go.’ Good luck.

Twitter: @Eric_Branch