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San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is currently down in Arizona working out with Dennis Gile and Kurt Warner in preparation for the 49ers offseason workout program. With the Super Bowl taking place this weekend, he is also promoting his sponsors and doing some media in Phoenix.
On Thursday afternoon, Kap joined the FOX Sports 1 Super Bowl crew to talk about several topics. He provided some thoughts on being in the Super Bowl, and how to attack the Seattle Seahawks defense. However, most important for our purposes was his discussion of the 49ers coaching change. They asked him for his thoughts on new head coach Jim Tomsula. He did not go into a lot of detail, but these were his first comments on the matter that were not the statement released by the 49ers
I think Jim Tomsula's gonna be a great coach for us. Players' coach. Always around the guys. Someone that's willing to listen to what players say, and has their intake. And I think that's something that will help this team move forward. We have a lot of veteran players that know what they're seeing on the field, and know what they're doing, so I think that will help us.
I certainly did not expect Kap to dump on the coaching hire, so we can certainly take the statement in the context of talking on national television. That being said, his comments about why made some sense. The team will feature some turnover heading into 2015, but there will be quite a few veterans on the roster. There are question marks with some of them, whether it be retirement (Justin Smith) or injury (Patrick Willis, NaVorro Bowman), but the depth could solid once again in 2015.
A true "players coach" can bring along with it some concerns about discipline, but this team ideally has the veterans in place to avoid issues of discipline. We have seen anonymous comments from three players expressing concern over the new hires. I am not surprised some players might be concerned, but I have heard second hand that some players aren't even thinking about it. It will be interesting to see how each positional group reacts to their new position coaches, but otherwise, I don't think Cole's story of player concern is something that needs to be overly worrisome at the moment. If the team comes out losing to start the season, well then you can grab your pitchforks.
Kap did also get a chance to comment on Jim Harbaugh and his impact. He reiterated what he has previously said about Harbaugh drafting him, moving him into the starting lineup, and otherwise always having his back.