Colin Kaepernick’s 49ers career will end with a scalpel, not a bang. Of course, that all seems inevitable now — after the firing of his patron, Jim Harbaugh, 11 months ago, after the sour performances early this season, the benching earlier this month, and the disparaging leaks pouring out of the 49ers front office for weeks to set up this moment.
Surprise: Kaepernick was put on injured reserve (a Saturday? the day before the Seattle game???), will undergo surgery to his left shoulder next week (HUH?) and his cataclysmic 2015 season is over.
So is, essentially, his 49ers career … because this is exactly what 49ers management has been hinting at for months now.
The 49ers-Kaepernick partnership is over. This is the unofficial breakup announcement.
On to … whatever else Jed York, Trent Baalke, Jim Tomsula and Paraag Marathe can brew up at QB, and won’t that be exciting!
What began with an incredible display in 2012 coming off the bench to replace Alex Smith … under Harbaugh … and led to a Super Bowl trip and another NFC championship game appearance … is broken asunder. And though the result was inevitable, the way the 49ers got to it, yet again, proved just how bizarre and mindlessly cryptic (and yet undeniably predictable) York, Baalke and Marathe are and will always be.
Once again, when the 49ers get ready to dump somebody, they will always do it in the most awkward, self-defeating way possible.
Listen, let’s figure that Kaepernick has wanted out from the time he was benched … and probably earlier, when he began to understand that York, Baalke and Marathe — or somebody close to them — were apparently dead set on leaking negative information about him.
Remember his “I really hope not” answer when I asked if he believed someone in the organization was making him a scapegoat?
Except: Kaepernick was a scapegoat, absolutely.
But the 49ers had control over his non-guaranteed long-term contract and there was a chance they might hold on to him into 2016 — say, if Kaepernick had to be rushed back into the lineup later this season and performed adequately.
Now that he’s on IR … and won’t suit up again this season … due to an injury he apparently suffered in Week 4 vs. Green Bay … this thing is over.
Done.
I would imagine the 49ers suggested that now was the time to get the surgery — all the better to get him healthy by April 1, which is the deadline for the 49ers to release him before his 2016 salary is guaranteed.
(My understanding is that if Kaepernick is deemed healthy by then, his 2016 salary would not be guaranteed until or unless he is on the roster April 1. He won’t be on the roster — the 49ers will release him … or trade him if they possibly can, which I doubt.)
And I would imagine Kaepernick said fine, let’s end it now, do the surgery and I’ll be fine to work out for my new suitors in April.
Hey: “Mutual parting” … anybody?
And by “mutual,” I mean: The 49ers and Kaepernick both know the 49ers want him out and he might be saying, yep, see ya.
Sound familiar?
Yes, this is all comparable to what happened with Jim Harbaugh last season — the whispers, the weird contractual dance, the 49ers squeezing and leaking so that Harbaugh and Kaepernick finally just wanted to get the hell out.
By the way, no doubt, Kaepernick played terribly this season. That should be made clear. But he had a terrible offensive line, he had been separated from Harbaugh and Greg Roman, and his quarterbacks coach was a talk-show host last year.
- Why would Kaepernick agree to this timing? I think part of it is that he finally understands how bad that deal really was and that it’s probably better for the 49ers to cut him and get rid of that contract once and for all.It’s one of the worst QB deals I’ve ever seen — team-friendly because it included a small signing bonus but those large (non-guaranteed) salaries still have to be accounted for, and that’s why the 49ers started whispering about Kaepernick months ago.They can make the money go away if he’s not worth it. He’s not worth it. They’ve partially destroyed him this season in order to make themselves look good … because the Yorks have been eyeing that money for a while now.Kaepernick gave them control over the situation because he signed that deal — I kept saying I didn’t understand it; I kept saying the ONLY beneficiary was the Yorks’ pocketbooks (no big bonus). That was it.
Now, once Kaepernick is an ex-49er this spring, the deal will be erased, he’ll be gone, and the 49ers can go with Blaine Gabbert and whoever else at QB.
It was inevitable. And inevitably messy.