Blaine Gabbert talks about QB competition, Packers, more

In the game, what are you trying to glean while you learn this offense?

"Yeah, just that consistent improvement. This is really a big dress rehearsal leading into the regular season. And you approach any game as if it's a regular season game, but this is usually the dry run for the regular season and we just want to keep improving on what we've done in the first two games and just get better from that."

Blaine Gabbert Evalutes 49ers Offense in Preseason 

With that being said, would you expect to play a couple of quarters?

"Yeah, we haven't really talked about reps or how many quarters we are going to play, but my mindset going into the game is you play in the game until they tell you to come out. You can't go into any game thinking you're only going to play a couple series or quarter because if you play longer you're not going to be prepared. So, from that standpoint, any game I play in I play until I come out, thinking I'm playing the whole game."

What kind of comfort level do you have playing here knowing that you had a couple last year and this is going to be your last warm up before the season opener?

"I feel really comfortable. It's our home stadium. We want to play good and just like I said, keep building on the first two preseason games and put a good show out there for the fans on Friday."

How do you feel this offense has progressed from the offseason to where you guys are now?

"It's been a lot of fun to kind of see that progression coming from that first mini-camp when we first started installing, going through the installs again in OTAs. The mini-camp install there in June and then kind of going through everything again throughout training camp. It's been a great learning experience and the more reps we get in games, the more comfortable we're going to get and the more different looks we'll see."

How do you feel with your rapport with the receivers? I know with TE Vance McDonald its good, with Brent maybe it's good.

"Garrett."

Garrett, excuse me. I'm thinking Brent Celek.

"No, it's been great. They're a lot of fun to work with and the way they do practices, they're on pitch counts, so they're not out there for an extended period of time. So, you have the ability and opportunity to work with a bunch of different guys top down. Any time you can get more reps with guys, the chemistry is going to build and I think we've got some pretty good chemistry going throughout this camp."

What's it been like going back to splitting reps after having a week and a half there--?

"You've just got to make the most of your opportunity. Rather than getting eight reps a period, you get four with the ones, four with the twos. You still get the amount of reps in. Each rep is a piece of gold. Like I've said before, you've got to treat that and cherish it because you've got to make the most of that opportunity because that's kind of what helps you leading into these games, getting reps in practice"

How do you feel you've performed during the preseason so far and what do you think you still need to do to win the competition?

"There is definitely things that you can improve on. But, looking at the first two games, we scored touchdown drives. I think we ran like two or three drives a game and the more extended time you play in a game the more in rhythm you're going to get as an offense and the more drives you're going to have that score points. So, I'm looking forward to kind of playing for an extended period of time here to get into the flow of the game and produce on the field."

What do you feel you need to do to win this competition?

"Just keep playing ball. Deliver the ball accurately and on time, leading the guys on offense and putting up points. Just playing the quarterback position the way the coaches want you to."

For you, is it more mastering the plays that are out there or is there a situation you would like to see during the preseason?

"It's really just mastering the plays, not making bad plays worse, executing the play that was called, knowing why coach [head coach Chip Kelly] Kelly wants to call the play and just kind of being that voice on the field. So, not trying to do too much, just let the system work for itself and distribute the ball to our guys."

Once this game is over, will you start looking ahead to the Rams and doing some film review of them?

"Yeah, just kind of brushing up on their defense, but we've still got another preseason game playing the Chargers. So, you can't really jump ahead of yourself because you don't know if you're going to play or not play. But yeah, you definitely want to start kind of getting a head start on the first game of the year."

Have you watched them on Hard Knocks?

"I have not watched Hard Knocks yet."

Players always talk about wanting to be put into positions to succeed by the coaching staff. Do you feel like with this offense, you guys as a whole are in a better position to succeed this year?

"Yeah, I think the players are really having fun with it. Coach Kelly puts a lot of trust in us to go out there and make the plays. And that's what you want as a competitive player. You want to have the ball in your hands. You want to be kind of leaned on to make the plays, score the points for this team. And that's what this offense does. It puts guys in position to have explosive plays, score a lot of points, throw for a lot of yards, have a lot of receiving yards and I think the guys are kind of feeding off that right now and knowing that they're going to be out there making plays."

I assume you before this, obviously you are in no-huddle situations, but what have you found as a quarterback when you are constantly in no huddle what it can do to a defense?

"It just wears them out because they're not used to practicing against that tempo. And it's very hard to simulate from a scout team being on the ball in 10-15 seconds to run a play where the offense knows where they're going and the defense doesn't. So, from that standpoint, you get a lot of stock looks and the fatigue factor definitely plays into it."

On the right side, OL Trent Brown obviously because of his size is drawing a lot of attention, but just this training camp what are your impressions of him at that right tackle?

"He's been doing a tremendous job. The way he's approached the summer program, coming into training camp, the first two preseason games has been tremendous. He's been playing his tail off and he's such a young player, he's only going to continue to get better. He's been doing a heck-of-a job."

With that size in the no-huddle offense, what are some of the strengths that you've seen that you've been out there with him--?

"Well his conditioning. For being that big and being able to run the way he can, it's impressive. Being however much he weighs and being able to run like that for a consistent period of time, it's fun to watch."

After missing the first two games for QB Colin Kaepernick, what do you think his mindset is going into this game?

"I don't know. I'm just worried about the things really that I can control, the things that I put on the field and the way I lead this guys and lead this football team."

* Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers