The San Francisco 49ers sit at 4-2 and are in the midst of a three-game winning streak heading into an all-important Week 7 matchup with the Denver Broncos on Sunday Night Football.
It’s the play of their defense and a young man under center named Colin Kaepernick that has allowed the team to right the ship after an incredibly slow start to the season.
Even with his stellar recent play, Kaepernick is still drawing criticism from those around the football world. This despite the fact that he led to the team to the Super Bowl two years ago and was one tipped pass from doing the same last year.
Let’s check in on how Kaepernick has performed since taking over as the 49ers starter midway through the 2012 campaign. And whether his performance should quiet critics who have concluded among other things, that he’s a one-read quarterback with an inability to his game up to elite status.
Stats Don’t Lie
If you add into the equation Kaepernick’s nine-career regular season rushing touchdowns, he’s put up a total of 50 scores compared to 15 interceptions in 29 starts. Those are some ridiculous numbers right there.
More than that, Kaepernick has progressed from a consistency and statistical standpoint over the past year or so. Since Week 3 of last season, the fourth-year signal caller has put up 4,614 total yards with 32 touchdowns compared to eight interceptions. San Francisco is 15-4 in those 19 games.
A true sign that Kaepernick has improved in nearly every aspect of his game, his road splits are absolutely ridiculous since falling flat on his face against the Seahawks in Seattle early last season.
| Starts | Record | Comp Pct | Total Yards | TD | INT | Rating |
| 10 | 8-2 | .646 | 2,620 | 21 | 1 | 115.3 |
Talk about competition or the lack of a larger sample size, that’s perfectly fine. But it’s nearly impossible to discredit these numbers. In fact, let’s compare Russell Wilson’s last 10 road starts, just for the heck of it. After all, these two will be compared to one another for at least the next decade in the NFC West.
| Starts | Record | Pct | Total Yards | TD | INT | Rating |
| 10 | 7-3 | .639 | 2,665 | 17 | 4 | 104.9 |
This speaks volumes about just how good these two quarterbacks have been in hostile environments. You just don’t see that from young signal callers on a consistent basis.
As it relates to Kaepernick, he has thrown one interception in his last 264 pass attempts on the road. His last interception away from Levi’s/Candlestick came against the New Orleans Saints in Week 10 of last year. This means that he’s currently in the midst of a streak of 192 pass attempts on the road without an interception during the regular season.
Surely, Kaepernick’s kryptonite as it relates to his road performance is against Seattle at CenturyLink. In three career starts against the Seahawks on the road (postseason included), he’s thrown six interceptions in 88 pass attempts. In all of his other road outings combined, Kaepernick has thrown a total of four interceptions in 461 pass attempts. Just think about that stat for a second.
The Tape
One of the biggest knocks on Kaepernick coming out of Nevada was his inability to read defenses and progress to his secondary reads. And while this was a major concern earlier in his career (mainly in 2012 and through the first half of 2013), it has not been much of an issue since.
In the video embedded above, you will see Kaepernick show the ability to both see the field and get past his initial read in two specific situations. The first came against the Washington Redskins last year, where Kaepernick was leading Anquan Boldin to the corner of the end zone. He ended up putting the ball on the spot for a touchdown. The other play came against the Seattle Seahawks, as Kaepernick hit his second read for a touchdown.
These two plays, while not too much of a sample size, goes to show us that Kaepernick’s improvement in this aspect of the game dates back to the latter half of last season. Here is yet another pass from the second half of the 2013 season.
Kaepernick is rolling out to his left and looking down field. While on the move, he realizes that there is nothing to be had. Instead of forcing the call into coverage or running, Kaepernick went to his check down. The result of the play was a rather large gain to Boldin.
Now fast forward to 2014, and it appears that Kaepernick has improved a great deal as it relates to checking the ball down and finding his secondary targets.
Here are a few screen caps from the St. Louis Rams game on Monday night.
Kaepernick is looking to his right there. He notices a Rams defender getting in the way of his throwing window. Kaepernick’s response was to go to his secondary read, Anquan Boldin.
It might have only been a nine-yard gain, but this specific play goes to show us how much more comfortable Kaepernick is looking off his initial read while remaining in the pocket.
The following is a play a little later in the game.
As you can see above, Kaepernick has two receiving options at the bottom of the screen capture. He looks off his first read and then goes with Steve Johnson on a 20-yard gain, completely fooling Rams defenders into thinking he was going first read the entire time.
Here’s the video version of this play.
While it sure looks like Kaepernick went with his first read here, his subtle ability to fool Rams’ defenders into thinking that the ball wasn’t going in Johnson’s direction is something that can be lost when watching a game live. The only issue I see with Kaepernick’s ability to progress past his first read is that he tends to be inconsistent in this aspect of his game. That was evidenced on the 49ers first offensive play of the game against St. Louis.
I call that “good kap vs bad kap.” And that’s most definitely something the young quarterback needs to work on moving forward.
One of the other issues that Kaepernick has at this still young point in his career is that he tends to struggle with touch. Blessed with a rocket arm, Kaepernick simply can’t afford to continue throwing the intermediate pass with such a high level of velocity. This will eventually lead to tipped passes and interceptions, two things that he has avoided thus far in his career.
Team Success
In a little less than two years as the 49ers starting quarterback, Kaepernick boasts a regular season record of 21-8. For comparison’s sake, only Peyton Manning (25-4), Russell Wilson (23-6) and Tom Brady (22-7) have a better record than Kaepernick during that span.
While that all-important Super Bowl has been elusive for Kaepernick, he already possesses more road playoff wins (3-1) than Joe Montana and Steve Young combined (1-5).
I understand full well that wins are a team stat, but at the end of the day that’s all that matters. If a team is winning with a specific quarterback under center, he is doing what is being asked of him. It can’t really be much more clear cut than that.
As to where Kaepernick surely has a lot to work on, the criticisms that he has received as a young quarterback in the NFL simply aren’t warranted. As the 49ers quarterback continues to improve and prove skeptics wrong, you will surely see more articles like this.
Until then, maybe it’s time to take a step back and appreciate the talent that he brings to the table on a consistent basis. After all, Kaepernick is legitimately one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL. That simply cannot be questioned at this point in his career.
Photo: USA Today