FanPost

Gabbert vs Kaepernick (Re: Chip's mid May comments)

At this point we're settling into the (once surprising) notion that Colin Kaepernick will be a 49er in 2016. Esteemed niners nation writers David Fucillo and David Neumann as recently as a month ago were confident that a trade would be consummated and the starting quarterback this year would be either Blaine Gabbert or a rookie. With that non event fading in the rear view mirror we now have entered the most boring part of the NFL calendar. Any news items of consequence from now until August are likely to be arrests, suspensions or injuries.

However in the interest of filling up the time between now and training camp we can certainly speculate based on the trickle of information escaping from Santa Clara. Today Chip Kelly contributed to the quarterback debate on KNBR- sort of. As coaches are wont to do he delivered a series of up beat, non committal answers to our most pressing question. Everything he said is in line with what he and Trent have said since Kelly was hired. Summarizing: Colin is working hard on rehab and in meetings; he also likes Blaine; there will be an open competition.

Seeing as Blaine is healthy, practicing, and ended last year reasonably well one might project that he is the presumptive starter. Gabbert has the additional advantages of being cheap and popular according to everyone who is willing to comment. Meanwhile Colin's name is frequently disparaged in the national and local media. So if you had to handicap this qb competition based off this information you would have to favor Blaine.

On the other hand let's consider the following point- before the draft a trade between Denver and San Francisco was reportedly imminent and also reportedly inevitable. Under those conditions Trent's and Chip's public support for Colin was written off as necessary in order to secure a trade. After all, nobody trades for a player whose team doesn't want him. Obviously the situation has changed. If Trent and Chip thought Blaine was likely to win the starting job or (as some have suggested) if they didn't want Colin to win the job it would make sense for the public stance to now shift. There's no advantage for them to dissemble about the situation. If they want Blaine now would be the logical time to start laying the ground work for that scenario. Of course it would be out of character for them to start bashing Colin, but it would be easy to dwell on the fact that Blaine is running the show right now. It would be easy to point out that Colin was benched last year and that Blaine played better, produced more, lead the team to more victories. But that's not the story we're hearing, if anything they're glossing over the fact that Colin got benched and playing up the angle that he was injured.

I am speculating wildly but my reading of the tea leaves is that Chip intends to start Colin this fall.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.