On Wednesday, San Francisco 49ers general manger Trent Baalke said quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be on the roster when April 1, 2016 hits. That is the date his $11.9 million base salary becomes fully guaranteed.
Kaepernick, 28, signed a six-year $144 million deal that keeps him under contract through the 2020 season. When he signed the contract in 2014, the 49ers implemented a clause that allows the team to release him in 2016, 2017 and 2018 before April 1 and none of his remaining contract would be guaranteed.
In 2017, his base salary of $14.5 million would become fully guaranteed if still on the roster April 1, 2017. In 2018, $5.2 million of his $15 million base salary would be fully guaranteed once again on April 1 of that year.
Three Coaches in Six Years
The 2016 NFL season will be the Kaepernick’s sixth season as a quarterback in the league. It will also be his third different head coach in those six years and third in three. In week 10 against the St. Louis Rams, Kaepernick replaced Alex Smith after he went down with a concussion. In week 11, he took over the starting quarterback duties for the remainder of the year and led San Francisco to Super Bowl XLVII against the Baltimore Ravens. Kaepernick and the 49ers came within five yards of a Super Bowl win.
In 2013, once again Kaepernick led the 49ers to the playoffs only to end up losing to NFC West division rival Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship game. Kaepernick threw a game ending interception that was tipped by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and intercepted by linebacker Malcom Smith to seal the game.
In 2014, Kaepernick was unable to led the 49ers to the playoffs for the third straight season and head coach Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers decided to “mutually part ways”. Colin had an okay year in 2014 as he threw for a career high 3,369 yard with a completion percentage of 60.5, a career high when playing all 16 regular season games. He threw for 19 touchdowns and was intercepted ten times.
Injury Plagued Season
The 2015 NFL season was by far the worst of Kaepernick’s career. It was also the first year of the Jim Tomsula era. He only started eight games and compiled a record of 2-6 in those eight starts. He threw for only 1,615 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions. He eventually lost his starting spot to Blaine Gabbert in Week 9 against the Atlanta Falcons. Two weeks later he was put on IR for a shoulder injury and was done for the season.
After the season, Tomsula was fired and Chip Kelly was brought in as the new head coach. There was a lot of speculation if the 49ers would keep Kaepernick, but San Francisco has decided to keep him. It is still up in the air who will start during the 2016 NFL season, but many people believe Kaepernick would fit perfectly in Kelly’s fast paced, read option offense.
In regards to if he will be named the starter or have to compete with Gabbert, Baalke had this to say; "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 continued; "The main focus right now is health, getting him healthy. He's done 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."
It's important to note that Colin is recovering from three offseason surgeries (left shoulder, right thumb and left knee). He has undergone all three of these surgeries since November.
Will Kaepernick Start in 2016?
When asked if a dual-threat quarterback might fight Kelly’s scheme, Baalke said; "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. 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."
When asked if the 49ers are open to adding another quarterback this offseason, Baalke stated; "We feel pretty good with the guys we have but we're always looking," he said. "We're always looking, and we're certainly going to scour this draft and the free-agent market that's out there. There's obviously not a lot of quarterbacks that make it to free agency, as we know, but we're going to look at every avenue."
"Quarterbacks [of] all shapes and sizes have had success in this league. We're going to look at every one. We're not going to pigeonhole ourselves and say they got to be 6-3 or taller, or 6-4 or taller, they've got to be 220 [pounds] or bigger. We're not going to do that. We're going to look at everybody that's available and put a value on them for what we think their value is for us."
Kaepernick has an opportunity to revive his career under Kelly. If he can stay healthy in 2016, the 49ers could be a very, very dangerous team in the NFC West, NFC and all of the NFL.