Stephen White: Colin Kaepernick was of course benched earlier this week after a dismal start to the 49ers season. After another abysmal performance in the loss to the Rams last week where he didn't even complete 50 percent of his passes for the second time this season. I guess in some ways the 49ers felt they had no choice. While they are framing this as an opportunity for Kaepernick to take a break as if maybe he will be right back after a "week off," I have a hard time believing that to be the case. Benching a starting quarterback who just got paid a lot of money is a big frigging deal no matter what. There is no way to minimize it, no way to sell it as a positive, really. That's before we even get to the possibility (stop laughing) that Blaine Gabbert goes out there and lights it up this week.
The 49ers are their own worst enemy
The 49ers made a quarterback change this week, and it’s probably not going to go well.
WALLY PIPP!!!
OK, yeah that’s probably a long shot.
Still, I have to say that while his play has obviously taken a big step back this season it’s hard for me to put all of the 49ers woes on offense on Kaepernick. They lost a lot of talent from that team overall, on the offensive line in particular, and it shows up every week. They also have a new offensive coordinator in Geep Chryst who has been deploying some wildly incoherent and inefficient game plans this season.
Then there was the whole running a highly successful coach and offensive coordinator out of town because of front office pissing contests that got the 49ers Jim Tomsula as a head coach. And now midway through the season they are reduced to signing running backs off the street — I actually love the Pierre Thomas signing, but still — because almost all of the ones that were on the roster to start the season are hurt.
I can’t defend Kaepernick’s play so I won’t try, but all things considered this does feel a little premature. When a guy is talented and has shown he can play before I’m usually of the opinion that you let them play through their issues, especially if they are in a new system But then again I’m just some blogger dude.
What do you think of the move to bench Kaepernick, Danny? Are things really bad enough to justify turning over the reins to ... Blaine Gabbert?
Danny Kelly: I'm really pretty torn on this subject of Kaepernick. On one hand, it's so easy to remember the dynamic, dangerous dual-threat quarterback that he was in 2012 and 2013 (and parts of 2014) as the Seahawks and Niners battled it out for NFC supremacy, but watching him these days he's a shell of that former player. When you look at his raw stats for this year, I can't say I really blame the Niners for wanting to try something different. He is not playing well. At all.
I really lean toward thinking it’s a bad decision to bench him and believe that it would be in the Niners’ best interest to let the guy try to play through his issues and develop in what looks like a lost season anyway.
With this move though, in essence, the Niners are giving up on Kaepernick. It’s not like they have someone better to come in and play. Blaine Gabbert doesn’t look like a great bridge option, and I don’t like the idea of sitting your multi-year starter without a real backup plan. Of course, that’s kinda the Niners these days.
I think that Jim Harbaugh (and Greg Roman to some extent) was good for Colin Kaepernick and knew how to massage his limitations into the passing offense. I think that Harbaugh was good for his psyche too, showing supreme confidence in him publicly while insulating him from some of the types of criticism he’s come under this year by, well, drawing it to himself.
The Niners have largely gone away from the heavy pistol sets with two tight ends and fullbacks that Kaepernick excelled in early in his career under Greg Roman, and Chris Ault in college, and have become more traditional in style gradually. They've alternately tried to make Kaepernick a shotgun quarterback or an under-center passer. They still use heavy play action, which is good, but he really doesn't have go-to guys that can win on their own in the short and intermediate areas (other than Anquan Boldin, who has battled injury this year).
So, I don’t know. We’ll see how Blaine Gabbert does, and I may eat my words, but I just don’t think that taking Kaepernick out of action is going to really improve anything for the 49ers.
