San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been working with quarterback legend Kurt Warner to improve on his skills and passing accuracy over the past 10 weeks.
The latest activity to test Kaepernick’s abilities was to have him participate in Warner’s charity flag football event that took place in Arizona. Warner commented on the event and about how Kaepernick has progressed:
We had some guys come out from the office playing in my corporate charity event, and there were a couple of times where I went, ‘Whoa! Was that a little bit of touch I just saw? Colin laughed and told me, ‘We’re not out here working for nothing.
The situation forced him to throw with a little more touch. He couldn’t throw it as hard as maybe he wanted to with those corporate guys.
So we’ve seen strides being made. … He’s growing and wants to get better.
Over the past three seasons, Kaepernick has struggled in high-pressure situations while mainly targeting his primary receivers and not being able to get to his guys deep down the field. Working under Warner and quarterback guru Dennis Giles along with performing passing drills with wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry, will likely help improve Kaepernick’s pass completion rate which currently stands at 60.1 percent.
Thus far, Giles and Warner have worked with Kaepernick to get his hips lower and improve his upright throwing posture. They’re also having him re-set his footwork. It’s these mechanical issues that saw Kaepernick drop out of the first round in the 2011 NFL draft.
Warner further commented on his work with Kaepernick, hoping everything will stick in the regular season:
The whole key with a quarterback is make it normal, make it natural.
It’s just a matter if that can become the norm for him as he gets back into defenses coming at him. My hope is those things will carry over.
As far as Kaepernick’s other instruction, it all sounds like everything is on course to see some improvement out of the quarterback entering the 2015 season. The addition of a deep threat in wide receiver in Torrey Smith will also help Kaepernick down the field.
Photo: USA Today