While watching Sunday's 49ers-Seahawks game, I couldn't help but notice the FOX broadcast seemed to be piling on quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He obviously has played poorly this season, so it does not take a rocket scientist to provide that kind of analysis. However, lead broadcaster Chris Myers had a couple comments in particular that caught people's attention. One involved him talking to someone who watched game tape and said Kaepernick left over 20 touchdowns on the field missing open wide receivers. The other was the notion that the 49ers offensive line was happy with the quarterback change.
Late yesterday, Myers tweeted in response to the criticisms of his comments:
Just to be clear on 49ers broadcast I never said SF OL didn't want Kaepernick and it was someone who watched coaches tap
— Chris Myers (@The_ChrisMyers) November 23, 2015
Tape not coaches who spoke of Kap missed TDs!
— Chris Myers (@The_ChrisMyers) November 23, 2015
I decided to go back through the broadcast to try and figure out what exactly he said. The first comment came near the end of the second quarter, at the 0:56 mark:
Well, the offensive linemen, there's a sense of relief moving on from Kaepernick. And no disrespect to him. And when Gabbert took that tough hit against Atlanta a couple weeks ago, and came back into the game, he won over a lot players' respect, further respect.
On the one hand, I would presume he spoke with some members of the offensive line or offensive line coaching staff given that he is talking about how they feel about something. I can see why people would interpret this negatively about Kaepernick, but it's just vague enough that it is not entirely clear. I'll give Myers the benefit of the doubt on this one.
The second comment came at the 1:12 mark of the third quarter:
I was talking to someone in the 49er organization who looked at a lot of game coaches tape, Ronde, like you do, and said that, not to pile on Colin Kaepernick, who didn't make the trip out here, but said that he left more than 20 touchdowns out, just by missing open targets, thus the benching and the chance for Gabbert.
His tweet said he was not talking about the coaches, but someone who watches coaches' tape. I suppose it could be a janitor with a Will Hunting knack for understanding coaches' film, but otherwise it would seem to be somebody in the front office. As always, it is anonymous, so we don't know anything for certain.
Some people are arguing that Kaepernick was bad enough, and so it is not something we should be overly concerned about. On that, I say, that is why you have Ronde Barber as a color analyst. He's got the week to watch game film, and provide insight as a former player. Instead, we get hearsay courtesy of an unnamed person in the organization. Maybe it's nothing, but it just comes across as high school and low class.
Others point out that this kind of thing could hurt Kaepernick's trade value, so why would they do it? That I cannot really answer. It is indeed illogical to trash a player you want to trade. But considering some of the decisions and actions over the last year, I think it is fair to at least question logic when it comes to the powers that be. I know people will disagree with my interpretation, and that is fair.