Chip Kelly discusses Kaepernick’s improvement this season

San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly jumped on a conference call with the media today from the team hotel in Orlando, Florida. He stated that the team arrived in Orlando around 8 or 9 p.m. last night. The 49ers will remain there until Friday when the team will travel to Chicago to play the Bears on Sunday.

Kelly was asked if he was encouraged by facing the number three defense in the league and the way the offense was able to move the ball. "I think even more than that I'm just disappointed in how we really hurt ourselves in that game," Kelly responded. "On the drives that we were stopped, all but one of them I think were our fault. We had the fumble in the red zone and then a couple times the penalties put us back, put us in long yardage situations, so it was tough to get out of those. But, I thought the offense did a nice job. You just wish with 475 yards of offense you'd have more than 24 points."

Kelly was asked about QB Colin Kaepernick, who accounted for 409 total yards of offense passing and running. "Like I said yesterday, he just got more experience," Kelly said. "He played starting the Buffalo game, so it's natural for anybody the first time playing in our system, our first time getting an opportunity to coach him. He's made a progression from game to game where you can see improvement from him, which is what you're looking for. I think that part of it is positive. I think in all facets, it's not just one facet where it's just this and this is all he's done. It's in everything. His pocket presence, his accuracy, understanding and knowledge of protections, in all that stuff. I think he's improved since the Buffalo game."

Kaepernick earned his highest game grade of the season from advanced statistics site Pro Football Focus for his performance against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

Kelly was asked if Kaepernick now looks like the quarterback that he was back in 2013. Kelly said that his weight is not back to where it was back then. He was then asked if Kaepernick would ever get back to that weight and if he can function well at his current weight. "I don't know," Kelly answered. "I'm not concerned about that right now."

"I'm good with his weight right now," Kelly later said as he sounded annoyed with the repeated questions about his quarterback's weight. "He's not going to gain 35 pounds or whatever he needs to gain that quickly. We keep getting that question. I'm not concerned about his weight. I mentioned it in the beginning just to say where he was physically, but I'm not really concerned about his weight."

Kelly was asked if Kaepernick was injured during that tough hit on the final play of the game. "No," he answered. "He wasn't on the injury list today."

Kelly had no update on LB Shayne Skov, who appeared to suffer a knee injury on Sunday. He had an MRI today but the results had not yet come back.