I think, after all these years, I’ve had enough of Colin Kaepernick as the 49ers quarterback.
That’s not easy for me to type. I’ve been Team Kap since the dawn of the Kap Era.
I can still see the pass he threw that magical night of Nov. 19, 2012. It was a Monday Night against the Bears. Sold-out Candlestick Park. Kap making his first NFL start for a concussed Alex Smith. Third play of the game. He let rip to Vernon Davis on an out pattern to the left sideline, up the field.
It was a rocket, and a 22-yard gain.
Candlestick roared. And I distinctly remember thinking: This guy can throw a ball Alex Smith cannot.
It all flowed from there. A 32-7 win that night, on 16-23 passing, 243 yards. Jim Harbaugh tapped something inside the kid from Turlock, imbued him with confidence. Chunk plays poured from his howitzer-throwing arm. The read option embarrassed Green Bay in the playoffs. He notched an NFC Championship road win in Atlanta. The only other 49ers QB to ever win an NFC title game on the road wore No. 16.
The 49ers had their man.
We were all so much younger then. We’re older than that now.
Flash forward to Sunday’s desultory, embarrassing, lifeless loss to the woeful New York Jets at a not-sold-out Levi’s Stadium.
Colin Kaepernick walked off the field after spending the last three quarters and OT going 8 for 19 for 38 yards.
It felt like he was trying to tell us something.
Among the items to be discussed:
His awful lack of accuracy. Kap is currently completing 54.8 percent of his passes. That’s down from 59 percent last year. And 60 percent the year before that. And 62 percent in the magical run of 2012. Sinking.
His inability to move the ball down the field. His average of 6.6 yards per play is the worst of his career. It’s tied with last year’s mark. It’s down from 7.0 in 2014, 7.6 in 2013 and 8.3 in the magical run of 2012. Sinking.
His stunning lack of big plays, formerly a Kap hallmark. He has 18 pass plays of 20-or-more yards. That’s 30th in the NFL. In 2013, by contrast, he had 46 — 12th in the NFL. Sinking.
I remember being at a Warriors game in 2012 with my main man Paulie Mac and his son, James. James was an Alex guy. He asked me: “Murph, why do you think Kap should start over Alex?” I told him, with great confidence and the air of the cocky guy who was educating the youth: “Because he can make one more play than Alex can, James.”
I felt smug in my correctness. Colin Kaepernick was a big play machine. He was the Chunk Play Guy. He could make the seam throw that would gain the most yards.
If only I could go back and apologize to James now. (Well, heck, I could. And I probably should.)
The reasons why Colin Kaepernick has lost steam as 49ers QB are many: Coaching, of course. Lack of receivers, of course. Lack of an offensive line, of course. Defenses sniffing out and controlling the read-option, of course. Three surgeries in the past calendar year, of course.
Add it all up and it feels like the days of Kap as the 49ers QB are like the days when your high school romance runs out of gas. Once it was all heady: notes passed in class, Friday nights at the movies, the homecoming dance. Then, it comes time for summer, and the energy fades. Everyone moves on.
I don’t know who the next 49ers QB will be in 2017 — Blaine Gabbert 3.0? Chris Ponder? A rookie from the draft? — but it’s time to move on from the days of Kap.
Oh, well. At least we’ll always have the out pattern to Vernon that Monday night lo these many moons ago.
