We know the standard career stages for many NFL quarterbacks: struggle, learn, success.

Colin Kaepernick? His stages are a bit different: success, struggle … learn?

The success? Kaepernick had his second-highest career passer rating in his first career start; had 444 total yards and four touchdowns in his first playoff start and was in the Super Bowl in his 10th career start.

The struggle? Over the past three seasons, Kaepernick’s passer rating has dipped each year, from 98.3 in 2012 to 78.5 in 2015. Last season, he was benched and replaced by Blaine Gabbert after eight starts.

Learn? Well, that’s what he must do now if he wants to resurrect his career.

At least that’s the opinion of Hall-of-Fame quarterback Steve Young, who says Kaepernick, 28, must master the Xs-and-Os minutia that surrounds the quarterback position.

During this appearance on KNBR on Jan. 15, Young suggested Kaepernick, a noted workout warrior, must spend more time in the classroom than the weight room. It’s what Young did with Mike Shanahan, the 49ers offensive coordinator from 1992-94 who made him constantly pore over concepts. Young’s time with Shanahan coincided with the best three-season stretch of his career and was capped with a six-touchdown Super Bowl performance.

“OK, so first of all the guy is a hard-working guy,” Young said of Kaepernick. “He just works really hard on the things he’s already good at. But I know that he works hard. But … it’s dealing with the things that make you more of a complete player.

“And some of those are really boring tedious, brutally - I mean, I remember Mike Shanahan would sit me down in that room and would say ‘Let’s go over it again.’ And I would say ‘Mike, if I go over it again, I’m going to explode.’ He’s like ‘Just one more time. I go ‘OK, just one more time.’ I learned the lesson of that’s how you embed it into your brain. You have to enjoy the detail, the data.”

Here are the highlights of Young’s thoughts on Kaepernick:

Can Chip Kelly resurrect Colin Kaepernick?

SY: The question needs to be rephrased because, to me, Colin is the one that needs to resurrect his career. Colin is the one that faded. Did not react. Did not steel himself and has to learn those lessons. It’s a tough, tough, brutal business. And you cannot take any exits. You have to hang in there and face it. So there are parts of it that he needs to go do, regardless of a coach. And that’s in the locker room. That’s with his teammates. That’s with how he handles the challenges. The ups and downs of it. He’s played long enough now, he’s seen enough - because everybody sees the ups and downs. He saw ups right away. I remember him before (his first playoff start). I go ‘Colin, have you seen any challenges at all?’ He’s like ‘No.’ I said ‘Have you even been hit hard?’ He’s like ‘No.’ And then he went out and beat the Packers and ran for like 180 yards and no one touched him. So he’s gone a full lap. So a lot of it is on him.

Chip is a guy that understands quarterbacks. That’s a big part of it. There’s a lot of coaches that do not. So that’s good. And I think my comment yesterday was if anybody can, Chip can. There’s a quarterback-centric guy in the building like Jim (Harbaugh) was a quarterback-centric guy. It clearly resonates with me, but I always think the best kind of head coach is someone that understands the quarterback. That’s all good. But I think a lot of it is on Colin at this point. But he’s got a coach that puts a platform in position to (succeed), if it’s possible … But I don’t know that he’ll even get a chance. I’m speaking out of school because I don’t know what their plans are. It might be that he’s gone before the big payment comes up (April 1).

Would it be fair to say that it came too easy, too early and he didn’t have to put in the work that is necessary to be a top-flight, elite-type quarterback? They finally caught up to the read option and now he’s going to have to start reading the whole field. Now it’s going to be about quarterbacking from the pocket and he didn’t put in that work, he didn’t have the groundwork and now he’s going to have to play catch-up to get that done?

SY: OK, so first of all the guy is a hard-working guy. He just works really hard on the things he’s already good at. But I know that he works hard. But … it’s dealing with the things that make you more of a complete player. And some of those are really boring tedious, brutally -- I mean, I remember Mike Shanahan would sit me down in that room and would say ‘Let’s go over it again.’ And I would say ‘Mike, if I go over it again, I’m going to explode.’ He’s like ‘Just one more time. I go ‘OK, just one more time.’ I learned the lesson of that’s how you embed it into your brain. You have to enjoy the detail, the data. That’s why Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are so good.

They know ‘I can’t go anywhere.’ They started from a place of ‘I better get this embedded into my brain because I have no other alternative. I need to go win games from one spot.’ Those of us that could move around … Colin, Robert Griffin III), hit that perfect window. The spread option was just killing teams. They had no idea. So off the fake, Jim (Harbaugh) could say ‘Colin, go off the fake and hit Vernon (Davis).’ So he’d come off the fake and Vernon is wide open and, bam, he’d hit him. Having the definition in his mind and the clarity in his mind, you could see the talent.

When people’s minds are clear, you could see. I mean, he feathered throws in. It was really something. So in my mind, we need to get him back in a place where he can have a clarity around everything. The simple days are gone. And to your point, the complexity of what he needs to try to get is tedious and long-suffering and hard. And if he’s willing to, there’s a chance. But … that window that happened when you’re young and you’re just rolling through everything, those days are gone.

Twitter: @Eric_Branch