As we play the latest version of quarterback roulette. This was kind of how last year went as the front office bad-mouthed and whispered down the ability of Colin Kaepernick amid a team that lost all cohesion in the coaching staff and players.
The savior was of course the guy who is sucking now. Blaine Gabbert. A guy who has plenty of time and little to show for it. Kaepernick’s detractors have gone awful quiet as Gabbert has missed wide open guys, thrown ill-advised picks, and skipped passes on his way to a 1-4 record. All the while getting better than average protection.
With Kaepernick’s restructuring, the team is suddenly talking about letting him play. This after stating for the past 2 months that Kappy isn’t ready. Really. Frankly i don’t give a shit who plays, as long as it isn’t Gabbert. He has lived up to his 9-33 record.
And the Bills? God only knows. They fire Roman, and their defense plays better. The Von Ryan Express always has the possibility of becoming a train wreck in its own right. Huzzah! Kappy is playing for his NFL life at this point.
Hey, Badford is suddenly the hottest guy in the league. It could happen.
Forty Niners Forever 
It took a week longer than I predicted before the season and was overdue. Like you I didn’t believe Gabbert was capable of being a regular NFL starter.
I would have preferred to try Ponder but in any event they had to make a change and they did.
It will be interesting to see if they give Ponder any 1st team reps now. They know what they have in Gabbert so what’s to lose?
Kaep starts in Buffalo –
http://www.csnbayarea.com/49ers/kaepernick-will-start-over-gabbert-49ers-game-bills
Well, there you have it. The game is afoot. And the season is a proving ground.
Get ready for the vivisection in the old folks home. And, Phil, why so scared?
Ringing endorsement there. This probably doesn’t bode well that apparently Gabbert is outplayig Kappy in practice, but that’s why they play the games.
Exactly Chuck. It’s looking as though the Chip Offense just isn’t clicking at all levels.
It’s probably a case of ‘change the guy throwing the ball’, and see what happens,
It’s probably a given that Kaep throws a better deep ball.
Question becomes, is he able to spot the open routes quickly enough before running?
We’ll see soon enough…
I hate to think it but the Niners will still stink it up. Just be glad you don’t have season tickets for this train wreck.
Threw this up just before the thread changed –
Berger here’s another potential Fat Man in the Middle prospect –
Derrick Nnadi – FSU – 6’1″/312.
More of a run stuffer, strong as an Ox.
Only a Jr but, he could opt to enter the Draft next year,
http://www.drafttek.com/NFL-Draft-Scouting-Reports/Scouting-Report-Derrick-Nnadi.asp
I saw him play Saturday. He looked impressive.
You know the season is in the shitter when thoughts of the draft enter one’s cranium.
How can the Yorks be so inept in the sports world? They should just make Levis a giant shopping mall something they know something about and declare themselves a success! It doesn’t depend on wins and losses anymore, just buy, buy, and shop, shop until you drop!
A lot of people are railing on Baalke. I’m not 100% happy with him but I think there are more than a few who have lost sight of what is happening here.
This team is in a rebuilding mode forced by some very key players suddenly not with the team anymore. It would have been hard to see a few of the looses coming at one time, like Willis, Aldon and McDonald. When rebuilding it is wise to build from the front to the back. This means paying attention to the lines first. The O-line looks good and the D-line is getting there. We need a good NT if we want to stay in a 3-4. IMO, with the personnel we have right now we would be better off as a base 4-3 team. One of my problems with Baalke is not ever getting a really good NT. This always seemed to be Walsh’s top priority.
Now that the lines are mostly rebuilt it is time to get some skill players. QB, WR, LB. Usually this means DB but we are good there. I’m not sold on Chip and Baalke picked him but Chip is going nowhere so we might as well see what he can build.
I think we are 1 to 2 years away from being competitive but this rebuilding project was dumped on Baalke suddenly. I’m going to be a little more patient. I’m not defending Baalke but I am not jumping on the throw him out bandwagon at this time. I will tell you if he ignores the NT position one more year I might just turn on the….
Reno, I’ve been meaning to take back my statement that Ponder “Gabberted out” in Minnesota. Ponder wasn’t that bad. Gabbert is 9-31 starting in the NFL, tied for the worst EVER after 40 games. That was patently unfair of me to Ponder.
Ponder played in a rigid Sardine Can Offense in Minnesota. Singletary was even the asst HC. I don’t know how he’ll do in Chip’s offense but I can’t use that Minnihaha offense against him.
Bill Musgrave, my favorite former Niner backup QB, was the rookie OC.
Berger- If we were in a rebuilding mode Baalky wouldn’t be wasting picks on injured players, he would be stockpiling players that had the potential to grow. He would also have picked skill players on offense, like a QB or two. As it is now all these new players are getting toasted and by the time we actually get a good QB many will be so beat up they will be tossed on the to go heap. I agree with you on the lines being a top priority but the only reason our OL is decent is because of the older players. Our Dline isn’t very good at the moment. I think Baalky has squandered his time here and that he is a terrible judge of talent.
Emphasis on “terrible.”
You don’t rebuild in one year. The Thomas injury pick turned into Kerly. Defensive line players take a year or two to develop if you want them to effectively two gap. I have always said that. I want to see what he does this off season. he has a lot of cap space to maneuver. If he blows that I might join your hanging posse. I see some god things brewing. Patience is not a virtue of most fans.
Baalke has been building the defense for 6 years now, and where are we ranked? Near the bottom. One injury pick turned into a decent trade. The other 17 were wasted. He’s had 70 picks in 6 years, and you can count on one hand the impact guys he’s gotten.
Yeah, we’ve lost guys, but we’ve also had more picks than just about every other team. I don’t begrudge him his ability to make deals to get picks, but you can’t tell me he’s doing a good or even decent job drafting players. Part of his job is to sign free agents. He has done nothing in that regard lately. The offense has been lacking a true #1 WR for years now. TO is the last true one I can recall. He has not drafted a QB for years now. He can’t even hang his hat on the defense because it is still a work in progress.
Six years of drafts? Ouch!
Please explain the 18 injury picks. Who were the players?
Meanwhile on the “other” blog, Spit is going to vote Hillary and No Fear is very disgusted with Liberals. At least Spit is emerging from the 9th Century. That’s progress!
Romo does it again. Gawd how I hate that guy.
That loss is 100% on Bochy. He should have left Moore in there. He should have left Law in more than one guy. Lopez though was the biggest fail. He has been doing nothing but walking guys all fucking year. Pitching scared. Romo got 4 saves in the last week, but he threw his last picth as a Giant by laughing his way off the mound. Posey calling for the fastball in the go ahead run on 0-2 was idiotic. Crawford cost us 2 runs with his errors. Blanco fucked hp innumerable times with runners on base.
Lots of goats, but Bochy has to eat this one. He masterminded the collapse with his idiotic pitching changes. They didn’t work all of July through September.
We’ve gone over this 290 times Bergs. Baalke drafted 7 guys with ACLs. lineman Tank Carradine, running back Marcus Lattimore, fullback Trey Millard, cornerback Keith Reaser, wide receiver DeAndre Smelter, guard Brandon Thomas and now Will Redmond this year. A guy Baalke guaranteed would be ready for the season. He of course is on the IR.
Carradine is fair to middling and the rest are gone. We got Kerley for Thomas. I have all of Baalke’s picks listed here. The impact players are few and far between.
That’s my point. You think Baalke’s doing well. I don’t.
I thought it was 7. You said had said 18. I would also include Dial.
And Phil recognizes that Baalke is feeling heat. Jesus fucking christ. How goddamned dense is he? I’ve been saying for 3!drafts now that Baalke is ignoring glaring needs in favor of odd or injured guys. Anyone with a brain knows this. Well the only one that HAS to know it is Jed.
Uh oh.
Unca says “I’ve been saying for 3!drafts now that Baalke is ignoring glaring needs in favor of odd or injured guys.”
This is an odd statement. I’ll take this as an exaggeration tom sell a point.
I sorta see the process with Baalke,
He has gotten his high 1st RD Picks into early starting roles, Reid/Armstead/DeBuck etc.
He has gambled on ‘ACL Guys’ in the Mid RD areas for the most part, obvious exception being BThomas.
Agree with Berger in terms of needing that Fat Man in the Middle too, as Ive been lobbying for another Micheal Carter/Ted Washington forever.
Best analogy I can muster is, Protect the QB/Sack the QB.
It starts and ends in the trenches,
Build from there.
Baalke seems to have a good sense about slotting/grading his targets too.
If he targets a guy that doesn’t get to him, he typically deals down.
What compounds this whole situation, for me, is the role Ownership plays in upsetting the Coaching stability,
Every time HCs change, personnel requirements change with it,
I still see the biggest hurdle being the QB position,
Until we have stability between the HC/QB running the same system for more than a year or 2, the GM is never going to have an easy time of it,
Tank was Drafted for one position, RayMac’s replacement, didn’t handle it, then got moved.
Some guys just don’t fit schemes they’re intended to fit.
Always involves a learning curve from College to NFL.
GM and player equally responsible? Open for debate I guess,
Some do it better than others.
Some never do,
Kaep for example, DId he put in the work? Did Harbaugh/Roman fail to develop him?
DId Baalke or Harbaugh have the final decision together?
Thus far it’s been reported that Kaep hasn’t practiced as well as Gabbert.
Now he’s starting?
Some things just never make sense in the NFL.
This Contract restructure seems to suggest he’s being auditioned for a deal to me.
Chip needs a serviceable QB option before anything will make sense or, improve.
Much as I find him painful to read, Ratto seems to make some sense about the big picture here –
http://tinyurl.com/zde22hp
Changing out the QB could make us a little better but it won’t make us a good team.
It’s change for the sake of change IMO.
A carrot perhaps, to induce Kaep to restructure?
What happens if he doesn’t sign before Sunday and gets hurt during the game?
Maybe we can call it The Rolling of the Cap Dice.
A team that doesn’t stop the run is not a good team. I guess there could be an occasional exception but generally the first priority of a good defense is to stop the run. If a team runs a 3-4 defense without a good NT the management is not very bright. I’ll give Baalke one more year to add a quality NT before I consider joining the hanging posse. And no, Ian Williams is not the good NT I want. He is about average but unfortunately he is the best we have and he is hurt.
I’m with you on that point Berger.
Fat Man in the Middle?
YES! Please.
NJ, I think Gabby’s on-field performance weighs into the decision. At least I hope it does.
No doubt Chuck.
Gabbert is missing wide open throws that could have changed the outcome of 2 games already,
We’re stuck now, between a patient QB in the pocket with poor accuracy and, one that has no patience at all.
Shoot me.