Colin Kaepernick is having the worst year of his career with the San Francisco 49ers in 2015. Making matters worse, a report from Jay Glazer of Fox Sports paints a bleak picture of his relationship with his teammates and his confidence.
Glazer reported about Kaepernick’s recent struggles on Fox NFL Sunday. He said Kaepernick’s confidence “is shot,” and that the locker room isn’t exactly swarming to his defense. Instead, the embattled quarterback is “alone on an island” without much in the way of support in the midst of his difficulties.
The 49ers are currently 2-5 on the season, and Kaepernick has been downright abysmal for long stretches at a time. He has completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 1,453 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions.
The numbers aren’t great, but they really don’t tell the whole story. Kaepernick has been worse than what is seen here on paper. He has routinely missed his receivers badly, sometimes throwing the ball at their feet (or yards in front of them) and sometimes throwing it well out of bounds when he doesn’t appear to be throwing it away on purpose, as an unfortunate team trainer found out on Thursday.
The 49ers do have the luxury of having crafted a team-friendly deal, and they can cut their losses at the end of the season as long as Kaepernick isn’t hurt. He still has over $31 million in guarantees, but the money is only guaranteed against injury.
With this in mind, we recently suggested the 49ers should bench the quarterback, much like what Washington has done with Robert Griffin III, as a means to protect the franchise financially.
Whatever happens from now until the end of the season, it will be interesting to see how Kaepernick, and his teammates, respond.