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Time for Colin Kaepernick and 49ers to end failed marriage

August is time for overreactions around the National Football League. We base a player’s ability to succeed on a handful of plays.

“He can’t play at this level,” some say. More often than not, this analysis is premature and lends credence to the idea that we enjoy overreacting.

This article title in and of itself appears to have overreaction written all over it. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick threw a total of six passes in his preseason debut. He completed two of those attempts for 14 yards.

Colin Kaepernick

Those aren’t good numbers. But are they enough to tell us that the much-maligned signal caller is done in San Francisco?

In our own way, we want to call anyone criticizing anything in August a hack. How can we draw a conclusion that the 49ers should move on from this quarterback anything less than an overreaction?

In order to answer this question, we must look beyond six passes. We have to go beyond the box score. We surely can’t simply say Kaepernick looked horrible against the Green Bay Packers, and leave it there.

This marriage was defaulting long before the former Super Bowl quarterback took to the field Friday night at Levi’s Stadium. What was once a marriage of convenience should now be considered a divorce under the guise of irreconcilable differences.

Prior to being benched midway through the 2015 season, Kaepernick was struggling doing anything of substance under a coaching staff that had no right leading a team.

In a total of eight starts last season, the signal caller put up six touchdown while leading San Francisco to an average of 13.7 points per game. He also completed less than 60 percent of his passes and averaged 6.6 yards per attempt.

Kaepernick’s immaturity and reported rifts in the locker room during this time painted him in a bad light. The 49ers’ inability to surround him with anything of substance on offense also played a role.

It became an unattainable situation with a backdrop of fault that should be placed everywhere.

From Jim Harbaugh’s unwillingness to cater an offense around Kap’s strengths in 2014 to the organization’s haphazard approach to the quarterback, the leaders in Santa Clara failed.

In reality, it became one dumpster fire of a quarterback situation. Whether it was really a mutual decision or something else, Harbaugh leaving San Francisco following the 2014 season was pretty much the end of Kaepernick.

Jim Tomsula wasn’t going to fix this. A watered-down playbook implemented by a clownish coaching staff wasn’t going to fix this. Kaepernick’s own immaturity wasn’t going to fix this.

Then, following one of the worst seasons in franchise history, Tomsula and Co. was fired. He was replaced by an innovative offensive mind in Chip Kelly. It was in this that it appeared Kaepernick might have a new lease on life.

That belief ended quicker than the idea that Tomsula would be a good head coach. Within what seemed like minutes, Kaepernick requested a trade from San Francisco (more on that here).

This right here showed us everything we needed to know about the former franchise quarterback. He was done with the 49ers organization. And the franchise’s last-ditch effort to salvage the marriage by hiring Kelly failed.

But Kaepernick wasn’t traded. His inability to recognize that he had become damaged goods led to deals with the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos falling through.

In reality, Kaepernick had an inflated opinion of self — an opinion that was rooted in nothing we have seen on the field over the past two years.

Once it became clear Kaepernick wasn’t going to be traded, the two sides decided an attempt at reconciliation might be the best avenue to pursue.

It’s akin to parents, who find themselves in a loveless marriage, attempting to stay together until their children leave the house.

This all comes after Kaepernick missed the team’s off-season activities after going through multiple surgeries. It also came following a period that saw the quarterback sidelined with a dead arm (more on that here).

Whether this was all show and a PR game, no one really knows. Though, the idea that Kaepernick had a dead arm after not throwing throughout off-season activities seems a bit fishy.

Now, after six passes and a failed preseason debut, we are left wondering where these two sides are. Is the situation salvageable? Can this whole thing be worked out?

The long and short of it: No, San Francisco must move on from Kaepernick.

It’s what’s best for the organization. It’s what’s best for the quarterback.

The children have left the house in Santa Clara. They’ve been replaced by a divorce attorney that must show both sides that this is now the best route.

That’s my two cents.

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