The spin continues with the San Francisco 49ers and Colin Kaepernick. Bleacher Report's Jason Cole is reporting that one of the reasons the team selected Chip Kelly over Mike Shanahan is related to Colin Kaepernick. Cole said that the front office believed Mike Shanahan wanted to move on from Kaepernick, and they think Kaepernick can be salvaged with Chip Kelly. You can watch the video here, but here's the transcript of what Cole had to say for those that can't watch the video:
As the San Francisco 49ers coach search came to an end, and the team was down to deciding between Chip Kelly and Mike Shanahan as their final candidates, a lot of momentum was there for Mike Shanahan. People in fact were calling on his behalf, including such former 49ers as Ronnie Lott and Steve Young. But the deciding factor for the 49ers was that they believe that Shanahan did not want to keep Colin Kaepernick as a quarterback, and wanted to move on. Ultimately they believed that Shanahan wanted to draft a quarterback in the first round with their high pick that they have.
All of that led to the 49ers wanting to keep Kaepernick, because ownership believes that he can be salvaged. But the question is, with his accuracy and his decision-making, can that improve under Chip Kelly and his wide-open offense. And one of the other considerations for Kelly going forward is, will he be able to build enough of a running game in order to protect Kaepernick the way that he was protected under Jim Harbaugh, when they had such a hard running game that allowed a lot of the play action to be set up, and a lot of the quarterback option plays that the team ran at the time. A lot of questions going forward with the 49ers and Chip Kelly, and how he will be able to work with Colin Kaepernick, and improve Kaepernick.
There are several questions about this reporting. It would seem Cole has gotten some insight from front office folks. It would seem like the 49ers are doing what they can to salvage their relationship with Colin Kaepernick, but it could just be a matter of trying to drum up some trade value. During his time with the Eagles, Chip Kelly was repeatedly mentioned as being a big fan of Kap, wanting to acquire him via trade. This could in fact be the beginning of a turnaround for Kap (or at least an attempted turnaround), or it could just be some chatter that ends up meaning nothing in a couple months. But it's at least a little bit interesting.