The San Francisco 49ers awful season has been lost in the toxic outrage over Colin Kaepernick’s rightful protest of the National Anthem, but after a 1-4 start the discussion in the Bay Area has turned from Kaepernick’s protest to his role in a QB controversy with the struggling Blaine Gabbert.
Gabbert’s struggles have opened the door for Kaepernick to potentially return to his starting quarterback role that he once filled to success for the 49ers in their NFC Championship run. Vocal support from the fans at Levi’s Stadium on Thursday Night Football made the thoughts of Niners fans clear: They want Kaepernick back at quarterback to at least see what their former starter can do for the team.
#49ers LT Joe Staley on if he heard crowd chanting for Kaepernick: "Yeah, I'm not deaf."
— Eric Branch (@Eric_Branch) October 7, 2016
To head coach Chip Kelly’s credit, the right call will be made this week as Kaepernick will start at quarterback against the Buffalo Bills. A move announced on Tuesday morning that puts to rest a long saga of Kaepernick sitting on the bench longer than he should have behind Gabbert after five weeks of poor quarterback play.
#49ers coach Chip Kelly announces that they are making a QB change: Colin Kaepernick is now the starter.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 11, 2016
While the factors of Kaepernick’s large contract and bonuses along with the distraction his protest did bring to the locker room were at play, there was no reason for such a long wait to pull the trigger on Gabbert. Kelly and the Niners staff should have realized early into the season the issues with Gabbert after he failed to throw for over 200 yards in all but one game in his five starts. The fact that they didn’t remove Gabbert from the job shows how badly the Niners wanted to avoid a situation where Kaepernick would be the starter as they continue to attempt to restructure his contract or as the vocal backlash from his opponents in regards to his protest continues.
Now that Kaepernick has the job, he has the opportunity to prove to his critics that he can still be a capable quarterback in the NFL. A task that will be a tough challenge for Kaepernick given his struggles since his successful playoff runs in 2012 and 2013. Kaepernick’s regression was the reason Gabbert ended up as the Niners starter last season, which needs to be noted when evaluating Kaepernick’s potential in his return as the starting quarterback this week and beyond.
While Kaepernick’s struggles last season are irrelevant to being the deserved starter in San Francisco right now, his regression and limited play in the recent past need to be in mind when it comes to expectations for his play against the Bills this Sunday. A game in which it is unlikely we will see the Kaepernick that guided a 49ers team loaded with exceptional talent to the Super Bowl as the highlight of two deep playoff runs early in his career.
Instead, we will likely see a Kaepernick that will struggle to guide a rebuilding team with limited offensive weapons. A factor that puts pressure on Kaepernick as the critics will be quick to pounce on him if the Niners continue to falter, even if it likely won’t be his fault as this team will sink with whoever they play at the position.
It will be hard for Kaepernick not to do better than Gabbert as merely throwing for a standard 200 yards and avoiding costly interceptions will be an upgrade over what the Niners have had in the passing game so far this season. However, Kaepernick will be under the gun to not only do better than Gabbert, but to live up to his former reputation as well for those who will be looking at the situation with unreasonable expectations.
Kaepernick will need to flash some of his old talents in his debut this week as there will be plenty of attention placed on a player who has grabbed the national attention due to his protest for social justice. Both his supporters and his critics will bring pressure that otherwise wouldn’t be there, but if Kaepernick is to succeed he just needs to do his job and do it better than Blaine Gabbert. A goal that is achievable and will likely be enough for Kaepernick to keep his job for the rest of the season as he will hope to parlay this opportunity into a permanent return to the starting quarterback ranks beyond 2016.
Regardless of the factors, Chip Kelly and the 49ers could no longer allow the pressure of the ‘distraction’ narrative or the pressure of Kaepernick’s contract to dictate them into starting Gabbert when it was the wrong move based off of talent. At 1-4, it wasn’t working for the 49ers to go with Gabbert and it was clear that Kaepernick deserved one last chance as a quarterback who once led this team to the Super Bowl. We will see if Kaepernick can answer the attention, but Kelly and the Niners should have no regrets in making the best football decision they could to improve their team.
