Chip Kelly joined Murph and Mac on KNBR 680 on Monday morning after the 37-18 loss to the Seahawks.
Kelly said he started watching film of the game on the plane ride back. His biggest problem with the game had to do with third downs. The 49ers started 0-for-6 on the critical down; Seattle went 6-for-8 to start the game. That can’t happen.
But Blaine Gabbert is the hottest topic right now with the 49ers. He ranks 30th in QB rating (68.6), 31st in completion percentage (55.2) and 32nd in yards per attempt (5.5). That is not sustainable for an entire season, not with a backup quarterback who has played at a high level before.
When pressed if he’s opening up a quarterback competition, or considering playing Colin Kaepernick, Kelly had an interesting answer to offer up.
“Well the competition’s always been open, and again, I think people fail to realize that… Kap was hurt. He missed the entire offseason, he’s still getting back into form. You know, he usually plays at about 225. He’s not at 225, right now. He missed an entire offseason of lifting, had thumb surgery, shoulder surgery, knee surgery. So, he’s still coming along. And as he got back toward the beginning of camp, only two weeks in, he hurt his throwing shoulder, separate injury. Really, just a fatigue situation because he hadn’t gotten an opportunity to buildup, and really train the way he wants to train. So, he’s still coming back from what happened to him and knocked him out of last year. That always factors into the decision before he’s ready to go on the field.”
Kelly said he understands the outside noise is picking up on Gabbert’s poor play, but he hopes the quarterback is tuning out the sound.
“If you allow outside influences to effect how you feel, then you are going to struggle,” Kelly said. “Because not everyone is going to like what you do and not everyone is going to praise you and tell you that you’re great.”