The 49ers are benching Colin Kaepernick, according to Kyle McLorg of BayAreaSportsGuy.com. With No. 7 heading to the bench, Blaine Gabbert will be under center for Sunday’s game against the Falcons.
49ers players were split on Kaepernick and the organization stayed with him as long as it could, Rapoport tweets. Earlier today, head coach Jim Tomsula declined to give Kaepernick a vote of confidence when given the opportunity. Now, we understand why.
It has been said that each game in the 2015 season would be a referendum on Kaepernick’s status as 49ers quarterback going forward. Now that the signal caller is getting benched, it seems like a foregone conclusion that the Niners will cut him before his salary becomes guaranteed for 2016. The 49ers officially have until April 1st to make that call.
Kaepernick, who turns 28 on Tuesday, has completed just 59.3 percent of his pass attempts for 1,615 yards in eight games and he has six touchdown passes against five interceptions. With a career-low passer rating of 78.8 and two consecutive losses against division rivals, one can understand why the 49ers are making this change. Of course, it’s also fair to wonder if Gabbert is capable of playing any better than Kaepernick has been.
Gabbert, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2011 draft, played three seasons for the Jaguars before joining the 49ers in 2014. Over that time, he never had a completion percentage higher than 58.3 or a quarterback rating above 77.4.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Trade kap. Gabbert will go 19/34 117 yards 0 tds 2 ints
You can’t blame the players for what’s going on in San Fran, how about we trade all the coaches and draft Jim Harbaugh with our first round pick?
While I love the sound of that, but our GM will draft a kicker with that pick.
The 49ers of course got back to the NFC Championship Game after their Super Bowl appearance, but it was becoming clear by that time that defenses had adjusted to Kaep’s game and he had not been able to make his own adjustments; that’s why San Fran structured his deal the way they did. But he still has talent, and this might be one instance where a change of scenery really could work wonders. Time to rev up the Kaepernick-to-the-Jets rumor mill.