The San Francisco 49ers faced the Dallas Cowboys back in Week 4, when questions were already on the rise regarding quarterback Blaine Gabbert. In that game and the following Thursday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, Gabbert’s inconsistency resulted in him losing the starting job to Colin Kaepernick.
MMQB reporter Albert Breer recently wrote about some comments a Cowboys coach made regarding the 49ers quarterback situation. The coach said, “He didn’t look his best, but he did look like their best quarterback. We were happy to play against Gabbert instead of him.”
Breer brought up a good point in addressing the comments.
Maybe that was a fear of the unknown. Maybe it was the idea that, somewhere deep in there, the guy who terrorized NFL defenses for a season-and-a-half could once again be summoned. (Maybe it was just that facing the previous three weeks of Gabbert would be preferable to most anything else the Niners rolled out there.)
The unknown is right about where we sit at this point. He has not played meaningful regular season snaps since the middle of last season. He struggled last year, but part of that was due to injury. He had some issues in 2014 as well, but they were not quite to the level of 2015.
All of that is to say, there are so many unknowns right now. We know Colin Kaepernick has had issues with accuracy the past couple years. We don’t know how much of that is due to changing the offense around from a more simplified approach from his first two years. Whether a simplified approach with Chip Kelly improves things remains to be seen.
But that is part of what makes this weekend all the more intriguing. The offense had some big moments with Blaine Gabbert, but the inconsistency was maddening. Maybe nothing comes of the change and this offense is just doomed to failure with these quarterbacks. Plenty probably think that is the case. But the unknown is what keeps a lot of us waiting and hoping for something, anything this weekend.