The San Francisco 49ers did something that they had not done in a while in week 9 and that was win. With Blaine Gabbert under center Kaepernick held a clipboard for most of the game and surprisingly this team pulled off an untimely upset of a 6-2 Atlanta Falcons team.
This 49ers team was a team of backups, with injuries to Carlos Hyde, Reggie Bush, and Mike Davis, the 49ers were forced to start free agents, Shaun Draughn, Pierre Thomas, and a 4th string running back in Kendall Gaskins. Draughn led the backfield with 58 yards and looked fairly comfortable in the 49ers offense. Gabbert completed 15 of 25 passing attempts for 185 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions.
The win does not make the 49ers favorites for the playoffs or Super Bowl but it does indicate how far Colin Kaepernick has fallen. In 2015 Kaepernick played the Vikings, Steelers, Cardinals, Packers, Giants, Ravens, Seahawks, and Rams all in a row.
The easiest games to win came against the NFC East division leading Giants. So far each of those teams has looked like Super Bowl contenders at one point or another so one should be able to feel Kaepernick's pain as he struggled against struggled to be productive against the Cardinals and Rams because well everyone has. Kaepernick has completed 144/244 passes, gained 1,615 yards, 6 touchdowns, been sacked 28 times, registered 5 interceptions, rushed for 256 yards, a rushing touchdown, and has had a quarterback rating of 78.5.
For the competition he has faced that should be expected. Releasing Kaepernick/ getting out of his monstrous contract all together is more of an effort to restart the team by simply plugging all of the money they would spend on Kaepernick's contract into other areas of need on the team. Kaepernick's $20 million cap it in 2015 made him an extremely hard player to trade, and his $15 million 2016 salary makes him hard to keep. Trading Kaepernick would actually only force the 49ers to take a $7 million cap hit.
If 49ers release Kaepernick there will plenty of interested teams who will attempt to work with the young quarterback, after all it was only a few seasons ago that he almost led his team to the Super Bowl. Kaepernick's 2016 salary does not become fully guaranteed until April 1st so the 49ers will likely have to make a decision on him by then.