2016 was a rough time to be a 49ers fan, with the team going 2-14 while dealing with a dysfunctional front office. Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick suggests the 49ers didn’t want to win anyway.
Kaepernick’s memoir, “The Perilous Fight,” has been out for a couple of weeks and tells his perspective on growing up and playing both college and professional football.
49ers fans looking for stories from his time as the starting quarterback won’t be disappointed. We’ve talked about his relationship
with general manager Trent Baalke and head coach Jim Harbaugh, but Kaepernick also shares his perspective playing for the coaches that followed Harbaugh: Jim Tomsula in 2015, whose regime Kaepernick called “a disaster,” and Chip Kelly in 2016.
Kelly named Blaine Gabbert the starting quarterback over Kaepernick. On the surface, it may have seemed like Gabbert beat Kaepernick for the starting job. In reality, Kaepernick was still rehabbing and returning from injury. There were also reports of injury guarantees on Kaepernick’s contract that he eventually restructured to remove—something many (including Kaepernick) speculate was the real reason he stayed off the field.
That’s all common knowledge; what is interesting is Kaepernick’s take on the 49ers in 2016:
I should add that the Niners didn’t seem interested in winning football games. They appeared to be in full “tank” mode. They were calling Chip Kelly’s first season a “rebuilding” year, but in actuality they had no plan to go get the talent Coach Kelly wanted.
Kaepernick used the wide receiver situation as an example. Saying the 49ers’ No. 1 wideout that year was “the number five or six receiver on a different team.” No names are given, but Jeremy Kerley led the team in catches and yards receiving in 2016. Many may think of Torrey Smith as the “designated” wide receiver. Either way, Kerley’s team-leading 516 yards in receiving that year should tell you just how bad the 49ers were.
“The team didn’t get us another receiver,” Kaepernick wrote. “Despite having the money to do so, something like $40 million in salary cap space.”
Publicly, the 49ers were rebuilding. Even then, it was clear Baalke’s seat was nuclear after the press conference following Tomsula’s sacking took place; 49ers owner Jed York said he told Baalke he was not satisfied with the state of this [the 49ers] team.
Was the team tanking? It wouldn’t be surprising. The 49ers’ lack of spending in free agency both in 2015 and 2016 didn’t make sense then, and it doesn’t make sense now (though there were rumors that players didn’t want to go to the 49ers with all the issues). The same could have been said for the Chip Kelly hire. We’ve already mentioned the offense, but Kelly’s defense under Jim O’Neil was one of the worst in league (not team) history. While the hire was a head-scratcher to begin with, the 49ers didn’t help Kelly get into a position to succeed. Kelly might have been a bad coach no matter what happened, but he was put in a failing situation regardless.
There’s a strange alternate reality of what would have happened if Kelly had stayed with the 49ers for another couple of years and the team only let go of Baalke at the end of the 2016 season. It’s doubtful Kelly’s system would have succeeded no matter what the 49ers would have done, but it’s definitely a weird twilight zone moment.
