Remember when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick joked about having hangnails on his pinkie toes last season? It was one of the few times he got into the specifics of an injury that forced him to show up on the 49ers injury report for a couple weeks.
In less-than-surprising news, Kaepernick wasn’t all too forthcoming when speaking to the media at that time. And now there appears to be good reason for it. The young quarterback revealed on Wednesday that he suffered a chipped bone on his forefoot and a ruptured capsule in the ball of his foot on a Week 2 play against the Seattle Seahawks (via The Sacramento Bee).
It remains to be seen whether this injury impacted Kaepernick’s overall performance on the football field, but it is important to note that he didn’t take off an run as much in the games following this injury.
A seemingly minor injury, it didn’t keep Kaepernick from practicing. But it could have very well been one of the reasons San Francisco held back from calling designed runs for the athletic quarterback. In the eight games following said injury, Kaepernick averaged just five rush attempts per game. Once the playoffs came calling, San Francisco realized it needed the run game in order to succeed. At that point, the signal caller put up an average of nearly nine rush attempts and 81 yards per outing.
49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh acknowledged this past offseason that there was a “conscious effort” by the team to limit Kaepernick runs after the injury occurred against Seattle.
For his part, Kaepernick had this to say about the injury.
It was something that was always there,” he said of the injury. “Never spoke about it, never said anything about it because you’re a football player, you play through pain. Unless you’re being carted off, you should be on the field. If it’s something you can play through, that’s what you do.
Now 100 percent, it will be interesting to see if the 49ers employ more Kaepernick-based runs early this season. Though, having a less-than-stellar backup quarterback situation could still hold them back a great deal.
Photo: NFLRush.com