The 49ers' season is all but lost. A once promising "revenge tour" has turned into a sad, spiraling train wreck of injuries and inconsistent play. Make no mistake, this 49ers team isn't going to have some miraculous turn-around. They are who they are, and who they are is a mediocre football team.
49ers fans aren't foreign to this feeling. Watching their team march through the malaise of November and December, trying to find a reason to stay tuned in while other teams forage forward with their Super Bowl aspirations. Quite frankly, this is a challenge that the majority of NFL franchises face every year. Once the realistic opportunity at a Super Bowl run is over, how do teams keep their fans invested in the product they are putting out for consumption?
In 2018, current 49ers starting QB Nick Mullens provided a spark to the offense, writing his tale of undrafted QB who racked up passing yards while exposing the football universe to the hidden gem that was George Kittle. 49ers fans embraced this underdog QB story, but that was a different time. The 49ers weren't coming fresh off a Super Bowl loss and looking to make their way back to seal the deal. Also, 2020 Nick Mullens is wishing he could find his 2018 self as he has looked completely lost in 2 of 3 of his starts and failed to provide the 49ers with much of anything. In 2018, he was actually the 3rd string QB; that role belongs to C.J. Beathard this year. The 49ers already know there is no genie in that lamp, hence the signing of journeyman Josh Johnson this past week.
They signed the wrong quarterback. As Kyle Shanahan tries to piece together an offense with scrap-heap parts, there is a man out there, jettisoned unjustly by the league 4 years ago, who could provide a true spark to this team. He is the last quarterback the 49ers started prior to the Shanahan/Lynch regime taking over. He is, none other than Colin Kaepernick. The name alone is likely to cause a myriad of responses from 49ers fans. Many have memories of championship opportunities lost with the ball in his hands, others have a fond appreciation for the stand he took against police brutality and systemic racism. Disregarding all social issues, the last time Kaepernick played in the NFL he led the 49ers with a 16/4 touchdown to interception ratio and a 90.7 QB rating. Impressive stats, no matter how you want to dissect his performance. You won't find anyone to debate that Kaepernick isn't more physically gifted than the currently available 49ers QBs, nor can anyone argue that Kaepernick hasn't accomplish much more than Mullens and Beathard combined.
The argument to add Colin Kaepernick has very little to do with performance. The 49ers are getting next-to-nothing from their current QB corps. No, the 49ers should sign Colin Kaepernick to right a historical wrong while also providing the fans of this great franchise with something to get excited about. Logistically, the 49ers have a bye week in Week 11, giving them 3 weeks to try and catch him up to speed to run a basic, vanilla version of the 49ers offense. It can be done. It should be done. In 2016, the 49ers stood by Kaepernick as he kneeled for injustice. Since then, the NFL has collectively boycotted Kaepernick and kept him from taking the field for any of the 32 organizations.
There have been plenty of lessons in the year 2020. One of the ones that we, and even the NFL, can no longer ignore is that Colin Kaepernick was right. Racism, social injustice, and police brutality have been amplified more than ever on the national stage. Whether it be George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or Jacob Blake, the message that Kaepernick was trying to spread in 2016 wasn't ahead of its time. But we, as a nation, were incredibly far behind. Kaepernick's career was brought down by trying to do the right thing. Today, the 49ers should do the right thing.
Signing Colin Kaepernick would be much more than just a moral victory for football, the 49ers, and the NFL. San Francisco seems to be in a transitional phase at quarterback. Many believe that the 49ers will turn away from the traditional pocket-passer type QB in Jimmy Garoppolo and turn towards some of the more athletically dynamic dual-threat QBs coming out in the 2021 draft. Colin Kaepernick could serve as an experimental bridge for the 49ers and head coach Kyle Shanahan, allowing them to get a glimpse at what a Shanahan-style offense could be when empowered with the talents of a mobile, dual-threat passer.
The final argument for Colin Kaepernick is the simplest one. He will help this team win more games than the quarterbacks the 49ers currently have available. I would feel better with Colin Kaepernick taking the field Sunday vs. New Orleans than I would if the team trots out Mullens or Beathard. This year has been tough enough on all of us and the emptiness of a lost season with little to cheer for is the last thing any of us needs. So, I say to the 49ers: for history, for Colin, and for the fans, do the right thing.
- Gilbert Brink
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Written by:49ers outsider, residing in the Hudson Valley, representing 30+ years of the 49ers experience
