Originally posted by TheRatMan13:
Originally posted by BSofSF:
It was a mistake to trade Alex Smith. Even if you gave Kaepernick the starting job, Smith was an affordable insurance policy given that Kaepernick earns squat. The trade compensation for Smith was nice, but without a capable backup the coaches are putting Kaepernick in a role that he's not suited for. He sucks at traditional quarterbacking. He's pretty good when he's playing balls out and running a lot. If the team wants to seize on this window of opportunity with their Super Bowl caliber roster, they've got to let Kaepernick play like a wild man down the back stretch and just accept the real risk of injury. If they try to preserve him, like he's some kind of priceless franchise QB (in my opinion he's not), then we're just going to watch the frustrating growing pains of developing a traditional pro-style passer from an unconventional background, similar to what we endured with Alex Smith. He might get hurt, or he might win us a Super Bowl. But given our current position in the standings and our inability to beat good teams, I think the team needs to let go of the reigns and let Kaepernick do his thing. He's best when he's engaged, and running, and in the mix. They also should probably try to use a high draft pick next year for another QB, because an unrestrained Kaepernick will eventually get hurt and a restrained Kaepernick just isn't that good. That's my two cents.
No offense but it really doesn't look like you read any of the article.
First, the loss of Alex Smith is highly overstated. For what he might have added to Kap's knowledge base, he also could've helped divide the locker room by being held against his will, so to speak. He also cost way too much to ride the pine. It just wouldn't be smart.
Just as a side note for the people that refer to Alex Smirh being 9-0: the chiefs have yet to play a team over .500, and five of their wins have come against back up QBs.
Back to my original point.
I really don't think Kaepernick would be struggling if the offense were built in a way that would help him overcome some of the lack of experience. This passing attack is childish, and if you look at that screenshot of a play against Carolina, there is nothing that any amount of experience would help in that situation.
I've seen plays called like this on multiple occasions. Receivers running down the field in routes over ten yards, none of them turning around while Kap (or Alex Smith before him) has a defender all over him.
The coaching staff could fix a lot of these problems with more plays to counter a heavy rush. They just simply don't do it. Harbaugh had nothing to say when he was asked about it but he did acknowledge that it's a "point taken"
Bottom line is that Kap has not played great, but he needs to be put in a better position to succeed. The most innovative that this OC has been was stealing the read option after watching RG3 run it.
Honestly i didnt read it. Cuz i mean i got enough of finger pointing in here lol. I highlighted the main point because I do remember one thing, and please correct me if im wrong. Didnt at one point when Smith was behind center, we were dealing with the same things. Supposedly bonehead plays being called, WR's dropping passes, not running the routes, teams and us as fans knowing the plays going to be run, etc.
All along i've been saying lets not jump on Kaep too much, he deserves his fairshare in all this failure. But honestly i dont even understand how our offense is called. I mean, just using for example with the chiefs. They hired Chris Ault, the spread guru, then brad childress. And he actually explained what he did. looks for offensive patters, plays and formations that the league is doing now, and gives his imput to Reid.
As someone mentioned are we all definitely sure that this year, it's just Roman calling the plays 100%. Has anyone asked that?
Remember when we all agreed that Harbs and Co. scaled back the playbook for Kaep. So no one feels that shorter playbook, means less innovative plays being called. And what if whatever plays that are off the hook and creative, Kaep may not be ready for, or too complex for him now.
I'm just saying whats wrong with blaming Kaep, Roman, Harbs, and the entire O. Why does there HAVE to be one main factoring holding it all back, when i dont think any of us TRULY know what goes into the gameplan. But when a coach and offensive OC, both come out and say, "it's not the playcalling, it's the execution, I dont know whats hard to read between the lines." After this game, execution, players said it over and over, so they are just spitballing.
Kaep has skills, and tore it up last year, we all expected this year to be a continuation, but it hasnt been.... so far. This game in NO is really gonna show us what we are made of, and honestly, I think we may wound up not only winning, but maybe even blowing out the Saints, and oh boy, I cant wait to see the zone page freeze like it used to last year, when we had a real big game.
