Open Rants by jmpenkitis0401

In this article, I've decided to go in a little deeper on the PLAYER Colin Kaepernick, not the rights activist one. Because in terms of the speculation that he will get another chance, some people are saying that would be the worst decision a team could ever make (because of how bad he is). But have we actually considered the deeper understanding of his stats, and how they were influenced. Let's dive in

Kaepernick attended the University of Nevada to play football in which he did for 4 years. When it was draft day, the biggest concern with him, was his accuracy. A 58% completion percentage though did not block out his 4,112 rush yards and 59 rush TDs over 4 years as a QB. The 49er traded up to select him and hope he'd be the successor to Alex Smith.

In the 2011 season, he did nothing, only serving as a backup.

In the 2012 season, in week 10, Smith went down hurt, in came Colin, and he took the team to a super bowl. Mind you, two weeks after Smith went down, he was cleared to play, but Colin had obviously done enough proving to make him the starter for the rest of the way. The playoffs went very well for Kaep, besides for the super bowl loss.

In 2013, he was the clear choice starter, and played excellent. Led the team to 12-4, went to the NFC Championship game although unfortunately lost. In the proceeding offseason, he signed a 4 year, 126 million dollar deal.

Then the tumbling started

In 2014 he started off the season with two fines

1. Using inappropriate language on the field

2. Wearing headphones in a post game conference that upset the NFL because those headphones rivaled the NFL's sponsoring headphones

The team went 8-8 this season, and it was the last of Jim Harbaugh. Colin stats started to show decrease, but nothing alarming.

2015 came around and after 8 weeks, Colin had lost his starting job to Blaine Gabbert. Colin threw 6 TDs and 5 INTs in 8 games, with a drop of about 30 yards to his YPG total. In his defense, his O-Line was atrocious. 

In 2016, Gabbert opened up the season to start, but week 6 came, and in came Kaep. Then, he was out again. Kaepernick finished with a 1-10 record, 4 ints (not bad) 16 tds, and 186 ypg. Once again, god awful o-line. Chip Kelly out, in comes Kyle Shanahan. Kyle had decided Colin would not fit his new scheme and the team released him.

It is still weary that even though Colin didn't have the greatest stats, he wasn't signed at all following the release. It was believed to be that he was not because of the kneeling and drama he brought to the NFL.

Since then, he has had workouts to showcase his remaining abilities. But now it's time for me to give you some gentle reminders. For instance, when Colin was very successful in '13, he had Frank Gore, the last good year of Boldin, prime Vernon Davis, two pro bowl offensive lineman, Crabtree, and a defense that included 5 pro bowlers, one 1st team all-pro.

Now, lets talk about '15. He had 35 year old Boldin, Carlos Hyde, Torrey Smith at WR2, Celek and McDonald were the tight ends, Joe Staley being the only sufficient offensive lineman, and the 32nd ranked defense. 

Mind blowing, isn't it? 

'16 got even worse, with not a single pro bowler to be seen, and Jeremy Kerley as the WR1.

I don't know whether or not Colin should be given a starting role but I sure do know that he could definitely make an NFL roster. For a guy that is bashed against so much, people look past his 1-10 record and >60 completion percentage and don't realize that when he actually has a team around him, he was able to go places. And to be honest, in '13, it wasn't like that roster was insanely stacked.