Would the 49ers please stop the charade and just start Colin Kaepernick at quarterback already?
San Francisco coach Chip Kelly honestly still cannot think Blaine Gabbert gives his team a better chance to win than Kaepernick. Not with his team reeling at 1-4 and losers of four in a row. Not after Thursday night’s 33-21 home loss to the Cardinals in a game that was not nearly as close as the final score indicated.
Not when he looks at Gabbert’s career record as an NFL starting quarterback and sees these numbers: 9-31.
If Thursday night’s loss was not enough proof to Kelly that he needs to make a change at quarterback — a change that never should have been necessitated in the first place because Kaepernick always has been better than Gabbert — then perhaps Kelly needs to go back to college.
If nothing else, the 49ers and their moribund offense are in need of some kind of spark. Gabbert is not the sole reason for their slide — the 49ers’ roster is not exactly stocked with stars — but he has no shown no indication he is part of the solution. And the quarterback, on any team, has to be the root of the solution.
Gabbert has a 69.6 rating, has thrown five touchdowns, six interceptions and has a paltry 5.9-yards-per-attempt average (worst in the NFL). Thursday he completed 18 of 31 passes for 162 yards with a TD and two INTs, and he was sacked seven times.
Understandably, the frustrated and disgusted 49ers fans chanted, “We want Kap, we want Kap.’’
Well, when the 49ers play again, Oct. 16 against the Bills, the fans should get what they chanted for: Kaepernick must be the quarterback. Because what other options do the 49ers have? Where are they going with Gabbert?
“I think we’re going to look at everything,” Kelly told reporters after the loss to the Cardinals. “I mean, we’re 1-4. We need to make sure we’re going out there and giving us the best chance to win, so we’re going to look at everything.”
Kelly should look into what made Kaepernick so successful when he was one of the stars of the NFL in 2012 and ’13, when he was one pass (if completed) away from being a Super Bowl champion quarterback.
Yes, Kaepernick has had injuries (knee, shoulder and thumb), but it is believed he is healthy enough to play now.
When Kelly came to the NFL from college, he was perceived as an offensive genius and an innovator. Yet quietly, one of the real surprises in the league since Kelly took over the 49ers has been his inability to make something of Kaepernick.
If Kelly cannot bring Kaepernick back to a semblance of the quarterback he was when he played for then-head coach Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Greg Roman, that is a rather damning testimony to his reputation as an offensive genius, isn’t it?