The San Francisco 49ers will have quarterback Colin Kaepernick back at practice on Friday, but the plan is to limit him and keep an eye on him. Chip Kelly told the media Kaepernick has a sore throwing shoulder, and while he did not have a specific medical term, but thought arm fatigue could work. The 49ers will decide after the practice what kind of preseason snaps players will get, and hope that Kaepernick will be available.
Kelly said that the players are each throwing something like 86 to 102 passes per game. Prior to training camp, Kaepernick did not get much throwing in beyond rehab. He had surgery on his non-throwing shoulder last year, and any throwing he did prior to minicamp was in the rehab form. He got some work in at rehab and then spent June and July getting back into form. With all the throws in Kelly’s up-tempo offense, it is not exactly surprising Kaepernick would be dealing with some arm fatigue.
If Kaepernick is unable to go, Jeff Driskel and Thad Lewis would likely see a bump in reps. There is no word yet on how Gabbert and Kaepernick would split snaps in this first game. The quarterback competition is on-going, so I doubt we’d see something like with Sam Bradford last night where a player gets one throw in one series and that’s it. We’ll see what Sunday brings.