Colin Kaepernick will get his first start of the NFL season this Sunday against the Bills.
And according to the MMQB’s Albert Breer’s latest column, opposing NFL coaches aren’t exactly thrilled that the 49ers have taken Blaine Gabbert out of the lineup.
“[Kaepernick] didn’t look his best, but he did look like their best quarterback. We were happy to play against Gabbert instead of him,” a Cowboys coach told Breer.
Of course, in that Cowboys game Gabbert threw an interception on the game’s biggest play. Torrey Smith had beat cornerback Morris Claiborne early in the fourth quarter for what looked like an easy 55-yard touchdown. But Gabbert’s throw was dreadfully off the mark and Dallas ended up winning 24-17 in Week 4.
The 49ers currently have the 32nd ranked passing game under Gabbert’s direction. Chip Kelly didn’t even make the media or the Buffalo Bills play a guessing game this week. On Tuesday, the head coach walked up to the podium and announced Kaepernick as his starting quarterback moving forward.
“I think offensively we need to be better and we need to just make a move,” Kelly said. “It’s really not, it’s not [QB] Blaine’s [Gabbert] fault. I think it’s just as a group offensively we need to be better in a lot of ways, so we’re going to see what we can do and make a move here. It’s really one of the only maneuvers we can make based on our depth, where we are and what we’re doing.”
Kaepernick, as expected, has confidently embraced the challenge. We wrote on Thursday that Kelly should ignore his shortcomings from the last two seasons and really try and prop Kaepernick up on strengths he’s shown before: deep passing, play-action passing and rushing the football.
“Excited about it. Ready to go,” Kaepernick said in the locker room on Tuesday. “Hoping I can bring more to this team and try to get us a win this Sunday.”
The 49ers have not lost five straight games since 2005.
(H/T Niners Nation)