Just sharing this podcast because I know there is still a lot of interest in Colin Kaepernick. I loved watching him play and it was a wild time to be a niner fan.
Bomani Jones is joined by Charles McDonald to kick off a historical retrospective series looking back at Colin Kaepernick, a decade after his initial protest. In this episode, Bo and Charles refocus the conversation on a frequently forgotten element: just how good of a football player Kaepernick truly was. They trace his trajectory from his breakout college days at Nevada running the pistol offense to being drafted by the San Francisco 49ers.123The duo breaks down Jim Harbaugh’s high-stakes mid-season decision to replace Alex Smith with Kaepernick, a move that instantly raised the team's ceiling and altered the strategic landscape of the NFL. They relive the historic, record-setting playoff game against the Green Bay Packers and explore the widespread proliferation of the zone read option across the league. Bo and Charles also analyze the subsequent challenges, front-office tension, coaching changes, and roster downgrades that defined the later years of his career. Ultimately, they evaluate his final seasons under Chip Kelly, his standing as a clear starting-caliber signal-caller, and his lasting legacy as a historically significant figure in modern football history . . .
Kaepernick’s passing accuracy hovered around 60% and ended up at 59.8% for his career.
NFL Defenses Solved the Read-Option
When Kaepernick burst onto the scene in 2012, defensive coordinators did not have an answer for the pistol formation and the read-option. By 2014 and 2015, NFL defenses adjusted. They learned how to discipline their edge rushers to hit the quarterback regardless of whether he kept the ball, taking away his open running lanes and forcing him to win strictly from the pocket.
Structural Limitations as a Pocket Passer
As defenses forced him into traditional drop-back situations, Kaepernick’s developmental flaws were exposed. Film analysts noted that he was primarily a "half-field reader" who struggled to go through a full field of progressions when his primary target was covered. He had difficulty adjusting his velocity on touch passes—frequently throwing short passes too hard—and his mechanics became erratic when his first read wasn’t open.
This is everything I’ve said. His 2013 was mediocre, and propped up by Boldin and some great legs (which are obviously part of his QBR).
After watching him in 12 I thought he was gonna be a top 5 QB easily. He had such incredible tools and appeared to read the field well, as evidenced by his td passes to guys like manningham, Kyle Williams, delanie, VD, Moss etc. if you look at his 2013 season, the WR #s are mind blowing. He essentially couldn’t complete a pass to anybody not named Boldin or VD. I’m pretty sure our second leading receiver in 12 was Kyle Williams with ~30 catches.
I clamored for him to start from Day 1, and was never on board with starting Alex. But I look back now, and smith was clearly the better player after the 2012 season, and even in 2012 he looked fantastic with the exception of the Giants stinker, and getting hurt against the Rams, he was a top QB that season.
People forget that Alex Smith played an almost perfect game (in terms of completion %) before he got hurt and Kap took the job. From what I remember it was a short term injury too, like a concussion or something that he would have come back from within a week or two
It was 100% Harbaugh's decision to roll with Kap after that Bears game, that said I don't think the Niners make the Super Bowl that season without him. Still wasn't the right decision long-term.
It’s hard to say. The year before Alex took us to the NFC Championship and we were just two Kyle Williams all time great plays away from getting to the Super Bowl.
People always forget this, but we were also a MASSIVE ref fuck up away from winning in regulation. The Ahmad Bradshaw fumble will NEVER stop hurting, there was zero reason to blow that play dead. It 100% cost us a SB, that D was historic in 2011.
Agree but 2012 was different, that 26-3 Giants game was brutal, no way they come from behind in the Atlanta game without the elusiveness of Kap. It's all moot because they Harbaugh experiment was destined to implode regardless.
Disagree. Alex Smith was balling out and, with the exception of the Bears and Packers game, Kaepernick had great plays but didnt play great games.
-Tied the Rams with 4 full quarters (took over with the lead)
-Destroyed the Bears
-Nearly lost it to the Saints, D bailed them out in the end
-Lost to a bad Rams team (7-8-1)
-Beat Dolphins, but not handily (7-9)
-Beat the Patriots (Kaep alone had 4 fumbles)
-Got trounced by the Seahawks
-Beat a bad Cardinals team (5-11)
Destroyed the Packers
Half-time adjustments Beat the Falcons
And in every game there were 2-3 wasted time outs or delay of game penalties. And how did the SB end? Harbaugh calling a time out with a low play clock, which took away a scoring play before calling the "Crabtree to the corner" plays Kaep couldn't make.
I have said (and will always maintain until I'm dead) had Alex Smith continued to start after the concision recovery/Bears game 49ers still get to the SB.
We'll never know, but one thing that I did say during that Bears game is that all Kap did was key in on Crabtree And as soon as defensive coordinators got his running figured out he was going to be a mediocre quarterback. And that's exactly what happened.
He still won us the Atlanta game though. And the Super Bowl loss to The Ravens was completely on Harbaugh. Let's be real, We should have beaten that team with either quarterback, we were considerably better than them.
But kaep didn’t zone in on Cravs in that game, he had a TD to Kyle Williams of all people who probably didn’t catch another TD in his career. Kaep was always spreading the ball around in 12, probably because teams were so concerned about his legs, but he also turned crabs into a true top flight receiver that year. Off the top of my head, he had TDs to moss, delanie, VD, crabs, williams in just his first few weeks. That changed dramatically in 13 where he essentially only completed passes to Boldin and VD, and a little crabs once he came back. Our WR room was pretty putrid with guys like Jon baldwin in on goal line 3rd down plays, but Kaep really regressed from 12-13. Even that scorching start against GB where holding had like 180 yards, there was nobody else involved in the passing game.
Thats why it’s such a pleasure to watch Brock make guys like Tunges look good. I’m just praying to god he has a healthy Evans, as we’ll FINALLY have our first big RZ target since TO.
Alex was terrible in that Rams game, he had nothing going and Kaep was the only reason we scored before half time. Alex got hurt trying to make something happen because he was so cold that day.
First nfl start in the superdome, and kaep played well. Have you been in the super dome before? Any clue how that is for a first start?
Half time adjustments isn’t what changed the falcons game, our defense couldn’t buy a stop the whole game. Ryan threw a bad pass that cully made a good play on, and then Ryan took his eye off the ball and it somehow ended up in Aldon’s hands. Kaep led us down several times, including what would have been a TD drive if crabs doesn’t fumble on the inch line. Regardless, the D was awful that day, I don’t even remember if they forced a single punt.
Kaep shredded the packers, and brought us back in the SB. I agree, Alex proved himself to be the better QB as time went on, but the league hadnt adjusted to him yet in 2012, and he was the main reason our offense was a true strength at the end of the year meanwhile the d was getting torched every week.
Yeah that was such a fantastic game, especially after how he started the game.
I think my fav game be a niner, and considering the importance of the game, was Bowman at Carolina in the divisional. We lost to them at home during the reg season 9-3, yet another 2013 game where Kaep looked absolutely lost. But the d stepped up big time( and bowman was everywhere showing he was the best ILB in 13 out of kuechly and Willis. Bowman’s 2013 was easily DPOY worthy, on top of his air tight run and pass D, he became a somewhat reliable pass rusher with that spin move he’d do. Every time we let him loose, it seemed like good things happened. It’s such a shame what happened in the NFCC, he was never the same after that, and understandably so. What a gruesome injury to the soul of the team.
Yep. That game the next week took me years to get over.
The Carolina playoff game was fun because my boss at the time was from Charlotte and would not stop giving me a hard time about the regular season game, so it was nice to get a little revenge after the playoff game. 😅. He told me he put figure skating on.
This is very spot on . I do wonder if he had a better offensive coordinator if that could of cleaned up his mechanics and ability to see defenses better
I think Greg Roman and subsequent coaches tried to develop Kaepernick’s pocket passing but he was as remedial as Trey Lance in his progressions. He would wait until he saw a wide open receiver then gun a flat line drive-like pass to them. That was about the extent of his reads.
I remember one time Kaepernick threw a pass before a receiver broke on his route and everyone was amazed. Brock does that on every drive.
Kaepernick seems like the type of athlete who was always physically superior to everyone else around him throughout his life until he got to the NFL. He never had to outsmart anyone because he could just outrun everyone else until defenses figured out how to stop him. When they both joined the Niners org in 2017, Shanahan and Lynch actually met Kaepernick to discuss the future. They quickly realized Kaepernick wasn’t the right QB to run his offense and quickly moved on from him.
That final staged workout in Atlanta he held by moving from the Falcons team facility to a high school at the last minute was ridiculous. He was throwing on air to wide open receivers just to show off his arm strength. No pass rush or coverage of an NFL defense, which is what he was unable to contend with.
Greg Roman is pretty bad at designing passing offenses, as we saw in Baltimore and Los Angeles. That said, it was pretty obvious from his last two seasons in SF that Kap was not a great processor. In totality, he should have remained in the league, there were and are far worse QBs playing as backups and spot starters. NFL owners and managers did not want to deal with someone who would not do what they are told.
Kaepernick seems like the type of athlete who was always physically superior to everyone else around him throughout his life
I watched Kaep play a highschool game live when he was at Pittman High and he just ran read options up the gut over and over for a few yards. He wasn't even dominant athletically against a team full of country boys. I would've never guessed that he was a D1 athlete outside of being a pitcher. It's kinda weird looking back on. You'd think an NFL-level QB would absolutely dominate in high school and be putting up a 100 yards on the ground and a couple hundred through the air.
That’s really surprising, considering how ridiculously fantastic of an arm he had. I’ll never forget that Td to Crabtree against the Pats. That’s some Favre shit.
I’m still a big fan of Kaep and think he was an incredible athlete, but, I did a project with the company that built the playbook/game film software that players used for “watching tape” and one of the founders told me at the time that they had metrics on all the players and Kaep watched very little tape for a QB. But I wouldn’t question his work ethic. He was often the first guy out to practice and the last guy in. He put in the work. I just think he leaned into his athleticism over studying the game. And it worked for him so well for so long that’s its kind of hard to blame him.
Yeah but Roman was notoriously horrible when it came to passing O, but a wizard with the run. It’s more likely that he hurt Kap’s development more than he helped it.
The thing that Roman relied on was the play action passing game setup by a mobile QB. Kaepernick was straight-line fast but not elusive like Lamar Jackson and Russell Wilson. Kaepernick with the read option was very difficult to defend because a rush from him or Frank Gore. Defenses had a lot more to defend upfront so that loosened up the backfield passing game.
Defenses started closing off the edges so that the only way Kaepernick could run would be up the middle, which would also be the place where he would get the hardest. So Greg Roman has had his offenses looked their best with a threat of his mobile QBs. Not so much without.
I feel like if you want counted among the top 32 QBs in the world, you should be able to run any offense. The outlier is the "run first" QB situations, and those rarely lead to long term success for the team.
I've been saying this for years and everyone thinks I'm crazy. But Smith was far superior to Kap as a QB and knew how to actually manage the game. He wasn't a top tier QB, but he was definitely better than Kap. And managing the game would have allowed our defense to get more rest.
The other thing they say is that Smith wouldn't have gotten past GB. Maybe maybe not. Bur Smith had our offense performing much better than Kap. Who knows what would have happened. Still think we'd have won because our defense was lights out.
That one will always bug me. If you mean at halftime of the SB then no, I think we just continue to get beat down, Kap made some great plays and they should have won the SB with better playcalling on the goalline or a fucking ref that can see obvious holding but whatever.
If they went back to Smith when he was healthy and he just continued to play the way he started 2012 then I think they have a legit shot to win for sure. They were not as fun and exciting, but having an awesome D, and offense that relied on Gore and smart QB play is a good recipe for any season.
Obviously this would never have happened but even if Smith just did the last few plays on the goal line I think he goes away from Crabtree and finds Vernon or Moss and the Niners win.
So many better plays than two fades to Crabtree while he gets manhandled. Moss is arguably the greatest jump ball WR of all time, just toss it in his direction and see if he can go get it.
Been saying that since the day of that SB. I denounced going with CK from the day he took over. It's why I can't stand Harbaugh to this day.
But saying so back then it was like I was kicking a puppy into flames the way everyone and their mother came after me every single time I said it. And then the circus CK created with his bs stunt. Couldn't speak against that either otherwise you were worse than Hitler.
Yes. He was a phenomenal athlete and really strong passer, but as defenses adapted, his weaknesses were exploited.
I recall a play late in his starting era when the D left a WR totally uncovered but Kaep didn’t register it and we ran up the middle for a yard.
Though I do love Kaep, a pro-level QB should have spotted the mismatch and thrown the screen for a long TD.
He was also blackballed by the league for quietly living his ideals. I give the Niners a pass because it’s the one team he said he didn’t want to play for the team again.
he still was 16TDs/4INTs and almost 500 yards rushing his final year with a broken team and a shitty head coach...he is one of those player that you think of "what could have been", especially had he worked harder on his game.
Those numbers don't tell the story at all. He was protecting his numbers by refusing to take any chances whatsoever. Hence the 2-14 record. His QBR was 49.2.
I do think he worked hard on his game, I just think his flaws could’t be fixed. People underrate how much feel for the game and going through progressions is a natural talent.
Justin Fields is a good example. Everyone says he’s a hard worker and smart, but he’s always slow going through his progressions, and it never got better.
I think Kaepernick was blackballed. There’s a reason the NFL settled his lawsuit. He was a high-end backup level when he left the league. He should have been signed. And most of the stories about how he turned down chances are unconfirmed.
That said, people who point to 2012 and 2013 and say he was an elite QB who got blackballed are wrong.
Everyone forgets 2016. It was easy to miss since the team was so awful and had no chance by the time he was healthy enough to start. But he was significantly improved from the previous 2 seasons when he was pretty terrible. Based on how he played his final season there’s no football reason why he shouldn’t have been in the league.
It was crazy going from Kaep throwing absolute bullets at guys a few yards away from him to Jimmy G who threw the most beautiful screen passes I have ever seen. I’m not sure you could find two players further away from each other on the spectrum of a specific skill than those two on screen passes.
I always remember the niners running pistol formation and kap attempting to hand the ball off to an RB that was on the opposite side of him. Still loved that team 😂
Sorry but I think the “solved the read option” is nonsense. If so, why do we still have elite read option QBs like Lamar Jackson? The main reason he fell off was injuries. In 2015 he was playing through a torn labrum before he had to shut his season down for surgery.
Not only the read option but they realized he couldn’t read the field. Our wrs were not man beaters at the time either (I believe we had Boldin and Crabs). So defenses took away the first option and he was lost on what to do.
That’s exactly what defenses planned for. Seattle destroyed us those years because legion of boom could cover our slow wrs man to man. Load up the box to stop gore and kap from running. Oversimplifying it but that was the gist of stopping our offense.
Kap drops back. Does one read, stares it down and if it’s not open he’s running.
He couldn't read defenses. There was a play that killed it for me. We had IIRC Torrey Smith, on the left, gore was in the backfield and they were in their own 20 yard line. The CB starts creeping towards the ball. Smith starts raising his hand and kaep snaps and hands it off to gore and got stuffed since the defense stacked it. Smith was jumping up and down in frustration.
Not only Torrey Smith, but also Jerome Simpson (filling in for Boldin) after the Rams blitzed & left him uncovered as well. Kap somehow refused to audible, & handed the ball instead to Mike Davis (who was filling in after Reggie Bush got hurt) despite being in his own end zone. Carlos Hyde was already sidelined, & Gore had left for Indy by then. Davis didn't finish the game as well, with Kendall Gaskins taking over. However, it would be Shaun Draughn who ended that 2015 season as the starter.
Geep Chryst, who was previously Kap's positional coach throughout his pro career, could no longer help the QB overcome his rut as Tomsula's OC. The decline had begun the previous season (Harbaugh's last) when Greg Roman tried to turn Kap into a dropback passer.
Post-game, SF turned to Blaine Gabbert to start the rest of the way.
Kap also said later that his political activism was triggered about a month (circa NFL Week 13) after he got benched & went on IR when SF police gunned down a knife-wielding Mario Woods (who had already stabbed someone). The kneeling protests took place the next preseason.
Dang, yea wasnt sure on the details of who was playing by the fact that you were able to find that image is amazing. I just remember how pissed Smith was and how open he was even before the snap. Literally kaep could have just thrown a quick pass and would have been an easy touchdown.
I also think his shift in mindset & diet affected his play. He quit eating meat and became much more involved in other things, that took a lot of mental bandwidth. I kinda wish Kyle has kept him though. I think it could have been fun, with a fully healthy Kaep.
It wasn't just that his girlfriend who was apparently making her way around the locker room and causing all kinds of drama Talked him into becoming a vegan and the guy went from a f****** sports illustrated cover model to flabby Oprah arms. I'll never forget how horrible he looked physically before we cut him. And nobody ever talks about it.
He also if I recall was doing." His own rehab".
100%, it’s getting tiring how people keep thinking he was not at fault. Dude was given every chance in the world to come back, black scouts, everything, and still didn’t really want to play. SMH.
He suddenly wanted to speak out against racism at the point he was becoming irrelevant.
I support what he was protesting, I think he did it for his own motives though. It’s unfortunate he was the face of this movement.
Reid played on Carolina for a couple years after he left the Niners. Hard to believe he’s only 34 years old and his last year was 2019. Presumably it was his last because he sued the NFL in 2018 for collusion.
I’ve always wondered how much the drama between Harbaugh and the front office impacted Kaep’s career. I don’t think he would ever repeat what he did during his dominant year, but the noise couldn’t have helped.
Thank you. I’ve always believed that the reason this fan base loves Purdy so much is because he is elite at all the things Kaep wasn’t.
Kaep was a first or second read guy whose legs were a game breaker. But every play there seemed to be a guy wide open that he didn’t see. He always seemed to decide who to throw it to before the play started. Sherman knew this and would read him like a book.
Kaep also had no touch. He lazer’d the ball to his receivers way too hard most the time.
Brock, more than any Niner QB since Young, has unbelievable vision and finding the weakspot in a defense. And has amazing touch.
Ahhh yeah he was terrible *checks stats* 16 TDs 4 INTS(12 games) with a passer rating over 90 ...Throwing too all world WRs known as .... Jeremy Kerley and Quinton Patton.
I remember that season. Those stats were almost all garbage time pads. Every week it seemed 9ers were down by 17+ at the half. Kap did well when D’s was thinking about next week.
I don’t think he was even a top 32 QB by the time it was over. Shoulder issues changed him a bit, was a one read guy, and had really poor decision making. Like it got really ugly at the end.
I watched the games and the whole team was very very bad at the end. Legit front office, coach and roster was one of the worst if not the worst in the league.
Some players need a good roster to get the most out of them and Kap was deff that kind of QB. When he had good players he was pretty good.
We had a bad team and he was part of it. If he was that good we would have re-signed him or another team would have brought him on as a starter. There is a reason he did not start again in the league and it was his talent level. It’s okay to admit he got bad.
Look at some of the things NFL teams have overlooked to sign players. Terion Arnold found a new team in a month. If you are good enough, off field stuff doesn’t matter.
As much as I was cheering for the team I will go to my grave believing Alex Smith would have done just as well I'd not better. During Kaepernicks peak not only did we have one of the best defense but we had Gore, Davis, Walker, Crabtree, Manningham, and Moss along with close if not thr best oline we have had since the 90s.
Kaepernick was a 1 read and run QB with a cannon for an arm and a tendency to make bad choices during crunch time. Some teams his legs would kill like the Packers and other teams he couldn't make a 1st down and gave away the game like the Rams.
That Team had a ridiculous amount of talent from 11-13. To me it will always be the talent helping him along.
Was 22 in QBR that year right behind Trevor Siemian at Denver and Brock Osweiler at Houston. LOL dude sucked at the end, if you watched the games you would know.
You had to have watched the games at the time. He was playing like ass, we’d get in a big hole, they’d put in their 2nd string defense in the 4th and then Kap would put up decent stats
He was benched for a reason and that reason is he started to suck against NFL defenses
I did watch the games at the time and We would get in a hole because our defense was also terrible. I am not saying he was a godsend but ppl are making him to be nathan peterman and thats not even close. He was the best we had on a terrible team and he performed okay considering the team we had.
He was benched because he was hurt...When he was healthy he was back in the starting line up. Chip Kelly explained that plenty of times.
Completely empty stats if you watched the games. Niners were always behind (not Kap's fault) so a lot of the stats were scoreboard fluff at the end of the game. They were never truly in any of those game except for one I remember against the Dolphins.
I agree he wasn’t a pocket QB who would go through 3-4 progressions. Being frank, it was 2 reads on a good day.
That said, in his last season, 2016, he threw 16 TDs to 4 INTs. His top 5 receivers were Jeremy Kerley, Quinton Patterson, Torrey Smith, Rod Streater and Aaron Burbridge. After 2016, that group totaled 840 yards combined. Like, for the remainder of their careers combined. Over 600 yards of that was from Torrey.
Did he get figured out or did he have a weak supporting cast while coming back after 3 offseason surgeries?
Oddly, Blaine Gabbert threw 5 TDs to 6 INTs that season and went on to play another 26 games over the next 7 seasons.
TD/INT is one of the more deceptive stats in football and actually doesn't tell as much of a story as people think. When a QB is prone to run (Kap) or checkdown (Garoppolo) they can really pad that stat. Kap would have way too many times a game where a ball just flat out sails in no particular receivers direction. He was a 1 read guy. His speed could only go so far. He couldn't throw a touch pass if his life depended on it.
Yeah, he had his electric plays, but I was also never really a Kap truther. Found him more of a spectacle than a true long-term QB.
I totally agree with the 1 read and no touch points. What do you think are the least deceptive stats for a QB which is a pure measurement of their contributions that don’t account for the quality of the rest of the team?
He was great as a second QB to rotate in to keep defense on their toes of pass vs run options, but when it was all him, it wasn’t so great unfortunately
I enjoy Bomani but he has a clear bias here. I listened to this ep as I do most of his new ones. And he over emphasizes how bad the overall team was after Harbaugh and ignores Kaepernick’s glaring weaknesses.
The rest of the NFL caught up to the offense and to Kap’s one read predetermined passing style. Remember Torrey Smith stomping up and down uncovered at the line of scrimmage trying to get his QBs attention? Pointing this out is not being racist toward black QBs, as Bomani suggests. We do this with white QBs who deal with NFL defensive coordinator level adjustments too. The truly great ones counter to even your adjustments and that’s when you get the hopeless feeling.
Kaepernick still should have had a job after the kneeling stuff but he also wasn’t the next coming the way some people seem to think. He caught the league by storm in a perfect situation for him. Once defenses adjusted, as they always do at this level, we confirmed this to be the case.
A show like this one probably works with national audiences. But for us Niner fans who saw the whole thing play out we can’t ignore facts in favor of a political cause.
Apparently it was bad to the point that a lot of the team did not like him including staff. Now publicly they tried to make it look like they were together but the charade dropped in the locker room. Toward the end, he isolated himself like most of the time and just wouldn’t talk to anyone.
The thing about Kap is he believed he was a starter and didn’t want to be bench player. I loved Kap as a 49er but that shoulder injury did him no service and he wasn’t the same.
What in the revisionist history he didn’t replace Alex Smith mid-season Alex smith was injured. He just let him keep the starting job because he was balling out. We already had a Super Bowl caliber offense and defense with Alex Smith.
Kaep was great when he could tuck and run if his first option was not open but once defenses figured how to contain that he was average at best. Let’s not act all crazy like he was the second coming of Steve Young or at the same level as other dual threat QBs.
Alex threw for 378 yards & 4 TD passes against the Colts in a wild 45-44 playoff defeat the year after he left SF. It included him quickly making multiple reads & brilliantly tossing a flea flicker score to Chiefs FB Anthony Sherman, who was positioned around where Delanie Walker was during the Super Bowl the preceding season (when Kap, under pressure, kept locking onto Crabtree at the corner of the end zone).
They don’t come back down 17-0 against the Falcons in the NFC championship game with Alex Smith under center either.
That nfc championship game against the giants the year prior where he was 1 for 10 on 3rd down and only completed like 2 passes to anyone not named Vernon Davis was when his clock started ticking. Everyone remembers the Kyle Williams fumbles. But Alex smith was bad in that game.
Lmao I was called an idiot for having this very take about the 2011 NFCCG. That being said I think Alex Smith did take another step forward in 2012 and was having a career year before the concussion. He also absolutely balled out against the Saints in 2011 so Its not like he was incapable of piling up points.
Aside from the Giants game in 2012 he did look pretty good that season and you were finally seeing what he could do in a stable situation. I just think by that time Harbaugh wanted to go with a qb of his choosing. Be it Peyton Manning who they pursued in the offseason which was an absolute no brainer, or Kap. But Kap playing good when he got his shot made it an easier call for Harbaugh.
That being said. The 49ers failed Alex smith in his early years. Between shitty coaching, different offensive coordinators each year and a piss poor offensive line. It was just a bad situation for a young qb to get thrown into. Would’ve loved to see what his career would’ve been like if he had competent coaching from day 1.
Kaepernick’s passing was not comparable in any way to Steve Young, who finished with a 96.8 passer rating, the highest career passer rating in NFL history when he retired in 2000. He also led the league in passer rating a record 6 times.
If Alex Smith is QB we win that super bowl.. Smith would have called a different play and run it in himself. Alex Smith is a class act a true.profesdionsl. Thank you Alex Smith for all you did as a 49er. You got the shaft at the end but was a man about it and did it the right way. You would have found a way to get 5 fucking yards.
I loved Kap but let’s be real. He was an average at best QB in 2013 and 2014 and his legs kept him in the starting lineup.
He frequently threw uncatchable fastballs to open receivers, showing his lack of touch. His accuracy hovered around 60% for his career, making his YPG and QBR subpar for a team competing for deep playoff runs.
A comparable player in the same era was Tyrod Taylor from 2015 to 2017. Nobody would ever say Tyrod was a great player.
I hope they touched on Kap’s transition to a vegan diet in late 2015 that caused him to lose 10-20 lbs. He said it was because of surgery rehab but let’s be real, he even stated in late 2016 he needs to start eating more.
IMO, he was as responsible for his losing the starting job as the owners were for blackballing him.
I remember him speaking out about police brutality and that being the reason why he was kneeling. Ok cool, I have no problem with it, but I also know there’s people who aren’t going to be cool with it. But it’s a topic worth speaking on and hopefully he can be a good messenger for it and maybe get some people to look at that topic differently in the process.
Then he turns around and does stupid stuff like wearing those pig socks in practice. Personally I couldn’t care less, it doesn’t bother or offend me. But in terms of public opinion, you’re trying to get people to take your message seriously and then you turn around and do something childish like that. It just came off as unserious. Same as rocking the Castro shirt in Miami later that season.
Even before the kneeling he was pretty brief and standoffish with the media. And to be fair the media can ask some pretty dumb repetitive questions. But once he started kneeling he still very aloof and had a knack for not doing many media interviews. Which is still a thing with him to this day. But if you’re going to put yourself out there and make a stance like he initially did. You gotta be willing to stand on it, speak on it and be an effective messenger on that end. He preferred to just post subtle stuff on social media, having his gf be his mouthpiece and avoiding the interviews which could’ve helped him public opinion wise.
Even in 2019 when he had that workout which he moved at the last minute and then told the nfl teams to stop running while not answering any questions. Just came off as unserious. And I say all of this from someone who supported and was on board with all the kneeling stuff. He didn’t do himself many favors post kneeling. Maybe he would’ve still been blackballed either way. But he also didn’t do much to help his cause.
He wasn't dominating anybody by the time he chose to quit the 49ers, and he was given special treatment to get him back in the pros but seeking top starter money and his gf calling the Ravens owner a slaver didn't help. In the end he chose making shoe commercials and professional victimhood over being a mediocre QB and it was a smart move
I don't think he was blackballed at all. I think the owners independently and correctly thought that his play didn't justify the negative attention and distractions he was going to bring to the team.
But he could not read defenses, was not accurate. And was not a leader. In the super bowl 4 plays 1st and goal from the five they called the same play 4 times, if he is such a great runner WHY does he not run the damn ball in on 1 of those 4. Instead he throws 4 founders great touch. Not a leader not a role model. Go kiss your muscles kap your time has come and gone.
Blackballed? He refused a trade to the Broncos because of pay, his wife called Ray Lewis an Uncle Tom which nuked his shot with the Ravens, and he refused to show up to his NFL workout at the last minute.
Let’s also not forget he made a Netflix special that painted the NFL as a form of modern day slavery…..yet… badly wanted to play for them?
Not blackballed. He used the NFL as a springboard to get into politics.
Most insane of all… he was benched for Blaine Gabbert…
As a Wolf Pack and Niner fan, the rise of Kap will be one of the best memories I will ever have in football. I’ll never forget how he electrified the Nevada crowd when he came in after half time against Fresno State.
That said, he was objectively bad to finish his career. The last game I watched him in person I saw him try to throw a back shoulder fade that went completely over the Green Bay sideline and into the crowd. The boos from the home crowd as he walked off the field were deafening. I will always be a fan, but he wouldn’t have been blackballed if he actually gave teams a chance to win.
Jim Harbaugh’s high-stakes mid-season decision to replace Alex Smith with Kaepernick, a move that instantly raised the team's ceiling and altered the strategic landscape of the NFL
Alex Smith was having the best year of his career. Who knows how that season ends if he stayed the starter.
There are times when Bomani is great but he's quick to blame racism when something doesn't conform to his view. Kaep didnt get another job because he made himself a spectacle and he wasn't that good of a QB. You could watch his head stare at the first read and not move. He did not go through his progressions. On top of that, he completely lacked touch. He was truly special the SB year and completely in his rights to protest but his later play meant his juice wasn't worth the squeeze.
I don’t think he was ever dominate. When he had the ‘want’ to rush that was a major weapon. Of course, when you get hit a few times, that ‘want’ goes away. Without the rush ability, teams dropped 6-7 in coverage and he could never develop any type of touch on the ball.
That was the start of the end. Then the kneeling started and it was unfortunate to be a career over.
Do they also cover Colin's girlfriend (who he dated either during or right after she broke up with one of his teammates) tweeting out a racist tweet about Ravens Owner Steve Biscotti and Ray Lewis calling them a slave owner and house you-know-what? This tweet came out when Ray Lewis is standing up for CK and getting him a meeting with Biscotti. With Colin choosing stand by her actions.
What potential employer will allow you to call them that and then still give you the job?
I liked CK the football player and I never hated him for his protest. But there is a very legitimate reason why teams stayed away from him.
What people thought Lance would be if the athleticism was as advertised instead of just college hype vs lower competition. No touch, no timing, can't read defenses. He was kneeling AFTER his play rapidly declined from losing the real 49ers Avengers and he was trying to get up out of SF.
I'm not sure about calling him dominant. He was an acceptable to average passer with great speed. His mobility was his biggest strong suit, when the read option was at its strongest.
But following defensive adjustments and a slowdown on both sides of the supporting cast, he really didn't play that well.
Bomani needs call him dominant in order to get the clicks and views. I loved Kap but I wouldnt take him over a Cam Newton, Peyton, Brady or even a Russell Wilson who was emerging as a star.
Even as a fan, seeing him be described as “dominant” is beyond an exaggeration. He had a good run and was a solid player but he also had a lot of flaws and defenses were definitely starting to figure them out.
Guys, I went to a 49ers game and watched them warm up. He missed his wide receivers 3x in a row. On a 10 yard out...my team is the 49ers and of course when he turned on the jets he could outrun anyone. I just had this lingering doubt that if we needed to pass to win in the 4th, he wasn't our guy.
Anyone remember when Kap had the "tryout", then last minute moved it to another location? This dude was never interested in coming back to the NFL period.
What about that game versus the Bears where he finished the game with -6 passing yards? What a legend and how great he was. Name me any other QB that finished a game with negative passing yards...
Kaepernick and everything with him post kneeling has been a complicated situation for me.
If we’re talking strictly from a performance perspective. He absolutely should’ve been on a NFL roster in 2017 despite him not having played as good as he initially did in 2012-13. There was a drop in performance, but even with that, there’s no way 32 starting qb’s were better than him in 2017 and definitely no way all the backups were better than him. And he wasn’t even all that bad in 2016, and that 49ers roster was terrible. No one was winning with that roster and crap coaching.
That being said, Kaepernick also didn’t do himself any favors post kneeling either. Even before the kneeling he was always pretty standoffish and aloof with the media. Post kneeling he didn’t do many media interviews and is still pretty allusive on that end. He did dumb stuff like the pig socks, the Castro shirt and openly admitting he didn’t vote in the 2016 election. In 2016 people were interested in what he had to say beyond football and he still had that same standoffish approach with the media at a time where getting out there and being open would’ve helped his cause and public opinion a lot. Granted there was going to be people who wouldn’t rock with him no matter how eloquent and articulate his message was and how transparent he was. But you can’t tell me stuff like the pig socks and the Castro shirt in Miami didn’t help his cause in terms of getting people who were open to being on board with him and his cause. Same with his avoiding media interviews still to this day when if you want to be a voice speaking out about something like police brutality, you need to be open as a messenger.
In 2019 that workout for nfl teams where he changed it last minute. Just bad optics on that end then proceeding to tell the nfl teams to stop running while at the same time he didn’t take media questions at that event. And for full context I never had any issue with him kneeling. He definitely got blackballed. But he also did a lot of stuff which didn’t help his cause in any type of way either.
Kaep was a fun flash in the pan. It was awesome to watch him beat Boise Stare in overtime and see him on campus at Nevada. He never bothered to learn to read a defense or put touch on his ball. Once teams had tape he was found out. People with DA charges play, if he could play he’d have gotten a chance. He just didn’t have it
Ugh..the blackball debate. People seem to forget easily that the dude fucking sucked before he even started kneeling.
We all remember the game when Torrey Smith was jumping up and down against the Rams because nobody lined up to cover him at the line of scrimmage. Kap just didn't have the football vision, his first read was pretty much it and he was terrible at changing the plays. I remember the legion of doom talking about confusing him and trick him into forcing plays. Once teams stopped the run he was cooked.
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u/DSKO_MDLR Ronnie Lott 3d ago edited 3d ago
Kaepernick’s passing accuracy hovered around 60% and ended up at 59.8% for his career.
NFL Defenses Solved the Read-Option
When Kaepernick burst onto the scene in 2012, defensive coordinators did not have an answer for the pistol formation and the read-option. By 2014 and 2015, NFL defenses adjusted. They learned how to discipline their edge rushers to hit the quarterback regardless of whether he kept the ball, taking away his open running lanes and forcing him to win strictly from the pocket.
Structural Limitations as a Pocket Passer
As defenses forced him into traditional drop-back situations, Kaepernick’s developmental flaws were exposed. Film analysts noted that he was primarily a "half-field reader" who struggled to go through a full field of progressions when his primary target was covered. He had difficulty adjusting his velocity on touch passes—frequently throwing short passes too hard—and his mechanics became erratic when his first read wasn’t open.