NFL Films guru Greg Cosell and I are in agreement on something, and it feels like we are in the minority: The 49ers cannot plan 2017 around Colin Kaepernick.
I said it yesterday on my podcast, and Cosell said it today on KNBR 680 with Murph and Mac.
“I don’t think you can go into next season with Colin Kaepernick as your clear starter and say, ‘He’s our guy, we’re ready to go,’” Cosell said. “Now again, there are five more games to play. I’ve been very realistic and objective in evaluating him just because you had to see him, you had to give him a chance to work through this offense.
“The longer he’s in the pocket, the less effective he is, the less he sees. He has very poor footwork and balance. Can you camouflage those things and compensate for those things? You can, up until a certain point. He’s still a work in progress and he has a certain skill set that at times shows spectacularly and gets people excited.”
Monday, we wrote Chip Kelly deserves a lot of the credit for how well Kaepernick is performing. In Kap’s first four starts after the bye he’s completing 59.3 percent of passes, averaging 277.5 passing yards, has thrown eight touchdowns, two interceptions, with a 96.0 QB rating.
Cosell explained exactly how.
“I think Chip has done a really good job overall with defining throws for him — the initial read — so the ball can come out,” Cosell said. “He still, obviously, has a long way to go when that initial read is not there. That’s not a strength of his game. He’s not a progression reader. It’s a quick-timing offense.”
And while everyone was enthralled with Kaepernick’s 113 rushing yards against such a good defense in Miami, is that actually a sustainable plan for how to play offense in today’s NFL?
“They have to decide how they feel about the rushing yardage … that offense almost demands that the quarterback be a significant running threat,” Cosell said. “How much can a quarterback run in the National Football League, both by design and improvisation? That’s a question that most people I think come down on the side of, ‘He can’t do it too much.’”
It should be noted, the 49ers are 0-6 in games Kaepernick has started. He doesn’t have much help and it’s scary we could walk away from this season thinking he’s one of the best players on the roster.