The San Francisco 49ers have announced their starting quarterback for Week 11 vs. the Seattle Seahawks. A few hours after Jim Tomsula said he wanted to speak with the players, the team formally announced Blaine Gabbert would start the team's first game after the bye.
This is not surprising news, but clearly the team did not want to deal with another leak like we saw last week. On Monday, Tomsula said he was going to speak with the coaches and the quarterbacks before announcing the news to the media. The conversation appears to be complete. Tomsula will discuss the move further during his bi-weekly appearance on the Murph & Mac Show on KNBR at 8 a.m. PT Tuesday morning.
I saw some folks suggesting maybe the 49ers might roll out Colin Kaepernick for Week 11, but the odds of that happening seemed nonexistent. I said prior to Sunday that I did not think Kaepernick would see the field again as a 49er. I was obviously wrong about that due to Gabbert's brief departure on Sunday. I'll clarify that by saying that barring injury, Kaepernick will not see the field again for the 49ers. I don't think that means Blaine Gabbert is the future of this team. Far from it. But, Kaepernick's future is not with the 49ers.
As for Gabbert? Well, I discounted his performance a bit against a bad Falcons defense. Props to him for executing, but the Falcons are not good. However, if he can put together even a decent performance on the road against the Seahawks, I will certainly give him more credit. I will admit to having my curiosity piqued by what to expect from Gabbert in two weeks.