Colin Kaepernick could be absolutely scary-good running Chip Kelly’s offense with the San Francisco 49ers. Many have thought so, and according to NFL.com’s Albert Breer there are some NFL coaches who share this opinion.
One rival defensive coach called the potential union between Kaepernick and Kelly “Awesome — could be scary. You get the run threat back to keep the ball on zone read. … And Kap can throw it deep,” per Breer.
Another defensive coordinator took it a step further talking about how dangerous Kap could be running Kelly’s zone-read scheme.
“I think [Kaepernick] is a good enough passer, but obviously what’ll be a nightmare is his ability to run. That offense is straight ‘Freddy Krueger’ when you have a quarterback that can pull the ball and run at any given time.”
It’s not yet known if Kelly himself likes Kaepernick. He was actually decidedly noncommittal about the quarterback in an interview with CSN Bay Area when he said he couldn’t talk about how Kap fits into his system because of CBA rules.
In fact, as Pro Football Talk pointed out, the rules do not prohibit him from saying anything. So obviously this leads to even more confusion as to how the 49ers and Kelly view the quarterback.
For what it’s worth, this scribe thinks the combination of Kaepernick and Kelly could be a 49ers gold rush, provided Kaepernick isn’t asked to do too much in the pocket and plays with the kind of pace we’ve grown to expect from this offense.
Kelly has been rumored to have a fondness for the quarterback to the point of wanting to get him on his squad wherever he landed. If the two of them do combine in San Francisco it’s going to be a fascinating pairing to track next season.