NFC West Update: Colin Kaepernick to start for 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers finally make the obvious move and gave Colin Kaepernick his job back. That still doesn’t make them a threat to the Seattle Seahawks.

The San Francisco 49ers have been dreadfully bad this season. Ever since Seattle’s rival from the Bay Area somehow managed to crush the Rams in Week 1, the 49ers haven’t looked like they could beat anyone this season. This is a team that is weak almost everywhere, but their QB play has been the most damning issue overall.

So Blaine Gabbert heads to the bench, and Colin Kaepernick regains his old job. It was a move that should have happened weeks ago. The problem was that Gabbert starting was never a football decision, it was a business decision.

Kaepernick’s contract has an injury guarantee for the 2017 season. 49ers management wants him gone next year, and they’re afraid of him getting hurt. They don’t wan’t to be stuck with a $14 million guaranteed salary on the books for a QB they no longer see as the future.

It isn’t a coincidence that Kaepernick and the 49ers started negotiating a contract restructure almost immediately after last Thursday’s blowout loss. It also isn’t a coincidence that Kaepernick was named the starter immediately after the basic structure of that new contract was agreed upon.

The more mature and humble Kap has been easier on reporters to deal with, but that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly going to be good again. 2013 was a long time ago, and he no longer has John Harbaugh around to mask his weaknesses.

Kaepernick was always a flawed QB. He never learned how to go through a full progression. He have his primary read, and then he’d improvise. No one is going to confuse him for Russell Wilson.

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The truth is that Kaepernick will likely still be the same mediocre QB he was in 2014 and 2015. Even that will be far better than Gabbert.