On Sunday, Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee reported that the 49ers were set to meet with representatives of quarterback Colin Kaepernick in Indianapolis.
Then on Tuesday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that Kaepernick was open to returning to the 49ers. And why not?
San Francisco drafted Kaepernick in the second round back in 2011, a personal pickup by then head coach Jim Harbaugh. The payoff was immediate in 2012 when Kap entered for an injured Alex Smith, and ran away with the job, leading the 49ers to the Super Bowl, and in 2013, taking them back to the NFC Championship game.
But since then, it’s all been downhill for Kap and the 49ers. After an 8-8 season in 2014, Harbaugh was fired and replaced with a coach who had never so much as been an NFL Coordinator. That lasted one season, but more importantly, Kaepernick’s play continued be a topic of worrisome.
He seemed to regress as a passer and suddenly, stories of his lack of leadership, even losing the locker room began to pop up.
Blaine Gabbert replaced Kaepernick and suddenly, the offense showed some signs of life. In eight games as the starting quarterback, Gabbert finished with 10 touchdown passes, 7 interceptions, and a QB rating of 86.2, while Kaepernick, also in eight games, tossed just 6 touchdowns to 5 interceptions, while holding down a 78.5 QB rating.
The hiring of head coach Chip Kelly looked like a football marriage made in heaven for Kaepernick, but once the fog lifted, you began to question whether perhaps it would be better off if both parties mutually just parted ways.
If you are Colin Kaepernick, how do you go back to a team that leaked the “locker room” stories? How do you go to a team that benched you for poor play, knowing that in 2016, poor play again could lead to second extended seat on the sidelines.
And then there’s the Chip Kelly factor. Although intriguing, Kelly was also the head coach in Philadelphia who took an Eagles team on the rise, and proceeded to get rid of Desean Jackson, LeSean McCoy, Nick Foles, and lost Jeremy Maclin to free agency. That’s pretty scary if you’re Kaepernick (although one could argue that the 49ers already had their purge back in 2015).
The intrigue to play under Chip Kelly’s offense might be interesting, however the 49ers front office might just be enough to offset staying in San Francisco. Kaepernick could decide in the end that a fresh start is the better route to take instead, and could ask to be released or traded.
Teams like Denver, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and even Houston all could be interested in bringing in Kaepernick’s services next season.
That route of course, would open up a whole new can of worms for the 49ers, which we’ll get into in later post.
For now, the jury is out on Kaepernick returning to the 49ers, but one thing is clear- a decision has to be made very soon, as Kap’s deal goes into full effect on April 1, and no, that’s not an April Fool’s Day joke.
