We have no real idea who will be the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback in 2016, but that won't stop the discussion about what Chip Kelly's addition means to the hypothetical situation! A week before the Super Bowl, Matt Maiocco's weekend mailbag included a question about the quarterback situation.
Someone asked Maiocco if he sees Colin Kaepernick starting in Kelly's offense. He said he could see Kap starting, but he could see Kap traded or released this offseason. However, he added a comment from a source that we had not seen before.
A source who has worked closely with Kaepernick in the past told CSNBayArea.com recently that he believes Kaepernick had no chance to improve under the coaching on last year's team. The person said he believes Kelly is the kind of "strong, demanding coach" that Kaepernick needs in order to excel.
"Kap is a good player that needs to be hungry and coached hard," the source said.
It will be interesting to see how Kap will balance his distrust of the 49ers front office with his potential to develop under Kelly. This does also assume Kelly wants to keep Kaepernick around. I would guess Kelly would want to at least see what he can do, but we don't really know what's going through Kelly's head on this situation.
We also don't know what's going through Baalke's head, and what he may or may not want to do with Kaepernick. If Kelly wants to keep him and thinks he can be his starter, maybe Baalke is brought around on Kap's short-term future. But if Kelly is not completely sold I think the team ends up asking Kap to take a pay cut, and when he refuses, they release him. The salary cap is not a concern at this point, but if the team is not convinced he will be the starter in 2016, I don't see them keeping him at his current salary.
But maybe all parties involved can get on the same page for the first time in a while.