The media acts like Kap is a difference making QB.
He’s garbage.
And please stop before anyone says “he took SF to a Super Bowl”.
San Fran was absolutely loaded on defense and had a solid running game.
Kap and the run pass option was a new wrinkle to the league and defenses were clueless how to stop it.
After Coordinators had game film in the offseason, Kap was exposed as a gimmick. He can’t throw accurately and can’t read defenses for shit.
Just have to keep him in the pocket and wait for the incomplete pass or INT*
*this is EXACTLY what is going to happen to Lamar Jackson and the Ravens in 2019.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/prishe...aepernick-may-have-approached-40-million/amp/
- Inserted as the 49ers starting quarterback midway through the 2012 season in place of the steady but less dynamic Alex Smith, Kaepernick went on to lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl that season, and subsequently started every game for the 49ers in 2013 and 2014.
- During these three seasons, the 49ers amassed a 25-14 regular-season record with Kaepernick as their starter, made the playoffs 2 of 3 years, reached the NFC Championship game in back-to-back years, and earned a 4-2 playoff record.
- All three years, under the guise of head coach and former NFL quarterback Jim Harbaugh, his median raw QBR metric was 65.7…and it never dropped below 60 (though it did decline from 2012 through 2014). For perspective, the median raw QBR score across 33 NFL quarterbacks who saw significant time as a starting quarterback in 2018 was 58.6.
- More raw QBR stats…he had the top QBR among 12 playoff starting QBs in the 2012 playoffs, the 7th highest scoreamong 31 QBs for the 2013 regular season, the 5th highest QBR among 12 playoff starting QBs in the 2013 playoffs, and was just above the median QBR in the 2014 regular season.
- Despite his coaching successes, and likely the result of personality rifts between coach and organizational leaders, the 49ers fired Coach Harbaugh in favor of first-time NFL head coach, Jim Tomsula, who had previously been the 49ers Defensive Line coach. The 49ers offense sputtered in the absence of Harbaugh’s mentorship of Kaepernick, which subsequently led to Kaepernick’s benching halfway during the 2015 season. The team finished the season 5-11, and Tomsula was fired after the season.
- In 2016, the 49ers hired Chip Kelly as head coach. While a dynamic coach at Oregon which helped propel Kelly to the NFL ranks, he was fired at the end of his third season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015, and ultimately was fired after just one season in San Francisco after the 49ers finished the 2016 season 2-14. Kaepernick started 11 games in 2016, and while his raw QBR score for 2016 was 22nd among 30 NFL starters, he still finished above players who were still in the league in 2018…including Case Keenum, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Blake Bortles, Cam Newton, Trevor Siemian, Eli Manning, and Ryan Tannehill.
- Kaepernick’s last NFL game was January 1, 2017 in a 2-point home lossto their divisional rivals, the Seattle Seahawks.
So when you review the evidence, the one unequivocal conclusion which cannot be denied is that when teamed with an offensive-minded coach in Jim Harbaugh (who himself had prior experience playing in the NFL unlike Kelly), Kaepernick was – at the very least – an above-average starting QB between 2012-2014.
His play did diminish in 2015 and 2016, but that could have been a function of several things. Playing for an inexperienced head coach who was not proficient with the offensive-side of the ball certainly didn’t help his performance in 2015. Furthermore, the quirky style of Chip Kelly – which led to a short tenure in Philly and an even shorter tenure in San Francisco – didn’t help either. Plus, trying to learn a third system of offense in 3 years likely didn’t help matters much either.
These facts do not absolve Kaepernick from select mistakes he made during those years, but do provide further context. Specifically, and to know one’s surprise, coaching, scheme/style, and complementary parts can impact a quarterback’s performance.
From a talent perspective, his QBR during his first 3 seasons would have ranked among the NFL’s top-half of QBs during the 2018 season. And while his QBR dipped significantly in 2015 and 2016, it’s not implausible to suggest his poor play was a function of instability at head coach, playing under new schemes in successive seasons, and simply having a less talented complement of players at his disposal. For example,
Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders – a 3-time Pro Bowler – has seen his QBR dip in 2017 and 2018 after a career-high in 2016. Anyone following football knows that a big reason for this decline is related to a decline in the quality of the Raiders’ personnel, evidenced by their declining win totals since 2016.
