SANTA CLARA — Chip Kelly has spent much of the week deflecting blame away from Blaine Gabbert. San Francisco’s quarterback tossed two touchdowns, but accuracy issues in a 17-for-36 outing against Carolina were apparent the naked eye, and even more glaring on film.
“Again, I think it’s not always the quarterback,” Kelly said. “And I try to say that not to take pressure off of Blaine, but just because that’s the case.”
Kelly went on to explain a play in the preseason where it looked like Gabbert was wildly inaccurate on a swing pass, but the running back had ran the wrong route. Kelly’s also blamed the lack of a running game, dropped balls and the offensive line as reasons why Gabbert’s accuracy numbers were so low.
It’s understood that a head coach is supposed to protect his starting quarterback.
But others who have analyzed the 49ers’ Week 2 loss have come to different conclusions about Gabbert. NFL Films guru Greg Cosell is one analyst who has been unapologetic and upfront. Gabbert’s only consistency seems to be inconsistency with the location of his passes.
“He continues to leave throws out on the field,” Cosell said. “Receivers are open that he needs to hit. He’s played a good number of snaps in the NFL. The only thing you can hang your hat on is that this is a new offense for him and he’s theoretically still learning it.”
Except the learning curve during the week doesn’t really seem to be the case. 49ers players have indicated Gabbert’s been a bookworm dedicated to knowing the ins and outs of the offense. His teammates respect his work ethic and his leadership approach.
It’s just when bullets start flying on Sunday’s, Gabbert shortcomings resurface time and time again. With inevitable cries to see backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, Gabbert wisely repeated Kelly’s sentiment.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into when a ball’s completed or when it’s incompleted,” Gabbert said. “It’s not a single guy. It’s not the quarterback, it’s not the receiver, it’s not the o-line. It’s a group effort.”
Former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer took the criticism a step further, saying Gabbert was never required to develop as a pocket passer in Missouri’s spread offense, and he’s still suffering because of it. For QB’s who can bridge the gap from gimmicky spread offenses to sharp NFL pocket passers, it becomes apparent over the course of a few seasons whether they’ll develop or not. This is Gabbert’s sixth NFL season. The writing is on the wall.
“Accuracy is about knowing where to look and when to look there,” Dilfer said. “And too often, a lot of these guys that haven’t grown up in pro systems, their eyes are kind of everywhere. When a receiver is supposed to be open on your fifth step, (Gabbert’s) looking at them on his third step. He hasn’t married his eyes to his feet.”
When pressed about his footwork, Gabbert refused to blame any mechanics for why many of his passes were off-target against the Panthers.
“Footwork is footwork,” Gabbert said. “Your footwork changes on every pass play. You take a three-step drop, you take a five-step drop, you’re going to play-action pass drop… Football is football.”
Football is football, and aside from all the coaching turnover he’s dealt with, Gabbert has had adequate time to go from cocoon to butterfly. But the transformation appears stuck in neutral. Even if you ignore his 9-28 record in 37 career starts, other numbers don’t add up. For his career, he’s completed 55.8 percent of his passes, so these accuracy issues aren’t a jarring revelation. The only brief period he had any type of success was in an elementary 2015 San Francisco offense, one that was totally fine punting the ball and finished dead-last in scoring.
“He still doesn’t look like a pro quarterback,” Dilfer said.
It’s understandable Kelly has come to the defense of his starting quarterback. That’s the proper thing for any head coach to do.
The sad thing is that Kelly, technically, is right. Gabbert cannot succeed without a functional running game and his offensive line playing their asses off. His arm isn’t a weapon and none of these receivers are either. It’s a lose-lose scenario for the offense, and a situation that leaves some dumbfounded over why GM Trent Baalke didn’t even attempt to bring in some type of different quarterback in the spring — whether it be a retread veteran or a middle-round rookie.
Gabbert’s limitations as a quarterback put a cap on what this 49ers offense can be. It’ll only be a matter of time before Kelly starts agreeing with the Cosell’s and Dilfer’s of the world.