San Francisco 49ers Bench Colin Kaepernick for Blaine Gabbert, Alex Smith Grins Manically
When you’re 2-6 like the San Francisco 49ers, sometimes you need to do something crazy to make a splash. In the Niners case, however, trading star tight end Vernon Davis to the Denver Broncos wasn’t enough—head coach Jim Tomsula announced that Colin Kaepernick will be benched in favor of Blaine Gabbert heading into Sunday’s matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.
“Hahahahahaha,” commented former Niners QB Alex Smith (probably). “Woohoo!!! Yessssss!!!”
Okay, maybe Smith didn’t say it that exactly like that, but I have a hard time believing he didn’t jump for joy when he heard the news. I guess sitting the $114 million face of the franchise is one way to make people pay attention to your team.
It’s also hard to say that Kaep didn’t have it coming. Aside from a win over the pitiful Baltimore Ravens and a decent outing in the loss to the New York Giants, Kaepernick hasn’t been good. At all. Remember his 67 yard, four interception game against the Arizona Cardinals?
Kaepernick has cut down on interceptions lately, but that doesn’t necessarily put points on the board. The Niners have nine points over their past two games against division rival Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams.
Time to break out those Gabbert jerseys, boys.
Who knows, Gabbert may be all right. I mean, he wasn’t exactly Pro Bowl material with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but to be fair that’s where most players’ careers go to die.
At the end of the day, unless Gabbert unveils his inner Manning, don’t expect Tomsula to stick with him moving forward. He’s basically trying out the same thing that Jim Caldwell did with Matthew Stafford and hoping to ignite a fire in Kaepernick’s belly.
I would say the 49ers should try and trade Kaepernick, but much like the Chicago Bears and Jay Cutler, unloading that massive contract won’t be an easy process.
On a side note, maybe the Indianapolis Colts should take a page out of San Francisco’s playbook here. But it certainly can’t be Andrew Luck’s fault, so they just fired their offensive coordinator.