Did the 49ers front office setup Colin Kaepernick to fail?

Did the 49ers front office setup their own QB for failure?

It’s an interesting question that begs to be asked, especially when you consider what has happened in San Francisco.

For starters, the 49ers front office got rid of the two most important people on the team that drafted and developed Kaepernick- head coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman.

They replaced them with a man who has never been a coordinator in the NFL (Jim Tomsula as head coach), and Geep Chryst, who went from the 49ers QB coach in the prior four seasons, to offensive coordinator. Chryst did have prior OC experience, although it didn’t exactly pan out too well for him. In two seasons as the offensive coordinator for San Diego, the Chargers finished 9-23, which included a 1-15 season.

With the QB Guru (Harbaugh) running things, Kap excelled. (Don’t let that 2014 8-8 season fool you, the 49ers were torn to shreds with injuries). Roman catered the offense to Kap’s strengths, but now, the 49ers are trying to run vertical routes on teams that you can’t beat with vertical routes (Seattle).

The play calling has been terrible, even elementary at times, and never really aimed at Kaepernick’s strengths.

Secondly, the 49ers never addressed the offensive line, and/or made grave miscalculations. Brandon Thomas, a 2014 3rd round pick, was expected to take over at guard for the departing Mike Iupati. But that never happened, and Thomas hasn’t seen much/if any playing time this season. Boone, who was a Pro Bowler at right guard, was moved to left guard, and Jordan Devey took his spot. Then Anthony Davis announced his retirement, which was a major blow to the team.

Yes, they did already have Erik Pears on the roster (now the starting RT), but I don’t believe the 49ers brought him in with the intent that he would start the whole season, yet here we sit, with a patchwork right side that is terrible. It seems that most of the pressure and/or breakdowns come from the right side of the field, including a terrible showing against Seattle in which Michael Bennett had a field day.

Thirdly, the 49ers never went after a game breaking wide receiver. Yes, Torrey Smith is a home run threat, but he’s also a receiver whose career high in receptions is 65 (2013). Rookie Jarvis Landry, whom the 49ers passed up on in the 2nd round of the 2014 draft, had 84 receptions his rookie season, and already has 42 catches in seven games this year. That’s something the 49ers have lacked since 2012, when Kaepernick took over as the starting QB. That season, Michael Crabtree finished with 85 receptions. (By the way, Crabs has 40 catches with the Raiders in 7 games compared to 68 in 16 games last season with San Francisco.)

And finally, there is Kaepernick himself, no doubt about it. His QB awareness is terrible (see below), he’s made terrible decisions, poor throws, and it seems that every single time he rolls out to his right, the ball is guaranteed to be thrown out of bounds.

He also holds onto the football too long, takes off running to early on plays, etc. etc. etc. There’s enough blame to be placed on No. 7, however, the fact remains that Kap’s downfall isn’t all entirely his own fault. There is enough blame to go around the 49ers organization, and it starts with CEO Jed York and GM Trent Baalke.

You cannot expect a good but flawed QB to excel in an elementary offense where he has less than two seconds to throw the football to receivers who cannot get separation.

That’s what the 49ers front office put together in 2015, and they’ve made Colin Kaepernick their scape goat.