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Colin Kaepernick
Stadium issues aside, Maiocco did go on to talk about the team itself, starting with the 49ers' quarterback situation. He started by discussing Colin Kaepernick, who was cleared by his doctors yesterday.
"So the issues that were holding him up – he had the shoulder surgery in late-November," said Maiocco. "Then after the season was over, in early January, he had procedures on his thumb and also on his knee. So basically, the shoulder injury kept him from doing the kind of weight training that he typically does in the offseason. As a result, you could noticeably tell that he was a lot more thin than he had been since really he came into the NFL. So he had to work through the surgery to repair that torn labrum in his left shoulder and the rehab and everything else.
"So late in the offseason program, he was cleared to take part in all of the individual stuff, the 7-on-7. Basically cleared to resume all football activity. The 49ers held him out of most of the 11-on-11 stuff, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion at that point that he would be ready to go for training camp. Now, in his mind, when they broke for the offseason program, he stuck around and continued to workout and rehab in Santa Clara. His goal was to put on the weight, get all the strength back, get his weight back to where he wanted it to be.
"What's interesting is that in his previous NFL offseasons, he spent a lot of time working on – y'know, getting stronger, getting bigger, faster, stronger and some people thought that was kind of counterproductive to playing the position of quarterback in the NFL. Certainly, it is never a bad thing to be strong, but could you be too strong? And I asked him that when they broke and he said, 'Not too strong,' but he felt that maybe he was too tight. He didn't have maybe the fluid movements in the upper body that he would like to have so that's the Colin Kaepernick that he wants to see from himself and the 49ers expect to see when he shows up on the field Sunday for the first practice. And he will have a legitimate chance to compete."
Trent Baalke's future
On Tuesday, former 49ers director of player personnel Vinny Cerrato was on the show and discussed the idea that general manager Trent Baalke should "keep his head on a swivel" and be worried about his job. Maiocco as asked if he feels the same way.
"A little bit," answered Maiocco. "I think the performance of this team – the performances of the young players – in a lot of ways will dictate what happens with Trent Baalke. If at the end of this season – if Jed York and whomever else might be making decisions ... probably Chip Kelly has to be involved in this ... if at the end of the season, they look at it and say, 'Wow, we're not where we want to be and the pieces aren't even in place for us to get where we want to be,' then I think Jed York would have to consider making a change. And it's pretty clear that the signal has been sent that Tom Gamble, who is a known ally of Chip Kelly – in fact, Gamble was the only ally in that Philadelphia Eagles building that Chip Kelly had ... they parted ways with him ... fired him late in that 2014 season – that would be the natural progression.
"If they come to the conclusion that Trent Baalke's systematic approach to putting together a roster just simply is not working and will not work because the pieces aren't there, then I think that Chip Kelly, who would be, at that point, one year into his four-year contract with the 49ers, I would think that the person that he would be most comfortable with filling the roster that he's going to put out on the field on Sundays would be exactly that man – Tom Gamble."
You can listen to the entire interview here on 95.7 The Game.
