San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is experiencing a dead arm. According to orthopedic surgeon and Duke professor, Dr. Selene Parekh, that has everything to do with a lack of rehab that the quarterback should have gone through.
“The concern is that he did not have an aggressive rehabilitation program where they really worked on his throwing mechanisms,” Dr. Parekh said, per Kevin Jones of KNBR.com. “The arm fatigue he is experiencing is likely due to deconditioning. This could takes weeks to fully heal.”
It’s hard to believe that this was not known by both Kaepernick and the 49ers. It’s a common sense argument that Parekh elaborated on.
“Think of it like this: you have a guy who works out all the time every day in the gym. He then takes three months off. The muscles he worked for so long start deconditioning. When he gets back into the gym, he can’t do the same amount of reps or weights or endurance.”
Another way of looking at it is what happens to a person after spending a few weeks in a cast. When the cast comes off, the muscles often take several days to become functional again. When the muscles in question are on the throwing arm of an NFL quarterback, they need to be more than just functional.
Even if the team and quarterback did not know this, how was it not conveyed to them? If it was, then why wasn’t the advice followed?
It certainly seems like it could be weeks before Kaepernick is ready to play in games. That only makes Blaine Gabbert’s path to the starting quarterback position smoother.