It's official, the San Francisco 49ers are keeping quarterback Colin Kaepernick for the 2016 season, ESPN reports. Niners general manager Trent Baalke made the announcement today at the NFL scouting combine that Kaepernick will be present on the team's roster on April 1, when his $11.9 million base salary for next season becomes fully guaranteed.
This shouldn't come as a huge surprise. New head coach Chip Kelly was believed to be a fan of Kaepernick's when he signed on earlier this offseason and San Fran was expected to have Kaep compete with Blaine Gabbert for the starting job.
"I think the good thing is we've got two guys that have gone into games who've proven they can play and Colin's done some awful good things through his career, won some big games for the San Francisco 49ers and [we] expect him to come back," Baalke said.
"The main focus right now is health, getting him healthy. He's gone a good job with his rehab. Talking to the medical staff, that seems to be going very well, and [we] just look forward to getting him back and getting him working with this coaching staff."
Kaepernick, 28, underwent three surgeries for his left shoulder, right thumb and left knee over the last few months. He'll carry a salary cap hit of $16.8 million in 2016, ahead of Indianapolis Colts star Andrew Luck ($16.2 million) and 16th-highest among all QBs.
Due to the "pay as you go" structure of his contract, the 49ers can release him in 2016, 2017 and 2018 before April 1 without taking significant financial hits. Kaepernick originally signed a six-year deal for $114 million back in 2014.
Kelly will be Kaepernick's third head coach since being drafted in the second round of the 2011 draft. Overall, he is 27-20 as a starter with 56 touchdown passes against 26 interceptions. He was benched after eight games this past season after posting career lows in several key categories.
Though he floundered as a top-ten pick in Jacksonville, Gabbert's numbers were better than Kaepernick's last season. He completed a higher rate of his passes (63.1 to 59.0), threw for more yards (2,031 to 1,615) and touchdowns (10 to 6), while being sacked fewer times (25 to 28) and posting a better total QBR (47.1 to 42.6).
It is believed that Kaep's running ability will be a good fit in Kelly's up-tempo offense and Baalke seems to agree.
"I think if you look at the quarterbacks that Coach has had, he hasn't had a bunch of guys that can run, and he's been able to put together some pretty good offenses with guys that aren't able to run," Baalke said. "You get an extra advantage of having a quarterback that can run so I think if you talk to any coordinator they're going to take that as a positive. But it's not a necessity."
