3 Reasons Why San Francisco Needs To Start Kaepernick
The San Francisco 49ers quarterback play has been less than impressive this season. Blaine Gabbert hasn't necessarily played awful, but it's time for the Niners to make the switch under center.
It's rare to have a quarterback, who recently took his team to a super bowl, sitting on the bench. Other than the snaps Colin Kaepernick took at the end of a blow out win in week one, he hasn't played through a quarter of the season.
He has made headlines and been talked about non-stop since the preseason, but nobody has seen him play since the beginning of the 2015 season.
With a record of 1-3, the Niners are at the point where they need to change up its game plan before they fall further out of the division race.
One place to start that change is at the quarterback position. Here are three reasons why Kaepernick should be the starting quarterback as soon as possible.
1. The roster is not talented enough to win with Gabbert's mediocre play.
Through four weeks, Gabbert has just four touchdowns and is averaging 182 passing yards per game. Nothing Gabbert has done so far has looked impressive.
The Niners don't have enough talent on the offensive side of the ball for the team to win with Gabbert under center. If the team had an elite offensive line, or a couple high level wide receivers, it might be a different story.
A great quarterback can usually make up for a lack of play makers, but Gabbert is simply not good enough to make the players around him better.
San Francisco has much more potential with Kaepernick under center because of his athleticism.
It's similar to the decision the Niners made between Alex Smith and Kaepernick. When one quarterback has reached his potential, and the other has extreme athletic talent, the head coach needs to weigh who has the highest ceiling for success.
2. The team needs to see if Kaepernick has the ability to run Chip Kelly's offense.
The second the Niners signed Kelly in the off-season, most people thought Kaepernick was a shoe in to be the starting quarterback.
Because Kelly loves to play uptempo and run a lot of read-option, it would seem like an obvious decision to see what Kaepernick can do in the system.
If the 49ers were to play Kaepernick, the offense's dynamic would change drastically. Opposing defenses would need to set up a game plan to not just stop Carlos Hyde in the run game, but Kaepernick as well.
Gabbert does have the ability to run, but he's not nearly as explosive.
The team is going to need to figure out if Kaepernick can play in the system sooner or later. Kelly is likely to be the head coach for the Niners over the next couple of seasons, but who his quarterback will be is still up in the air.
3. San Francisco is paying Kaepernick over $15 million this year.
$15 million is an outrageous amount to pay a back up quarterback. Heck, it's an outrageous amount to pay a starting quarterback.
He has the third highest contract at the quarterback position and his play, or lack there of, does not warrant the type of money they are giving him.
The team is just wasting away money with him sitting on the bench. If they had plans of not playing Kaepernick this season, they could have cut him before it started and saved a lot of money.
At this point, the team might as well just throw him in and see if he can earn the money he is making.
