Less than three years removed from leading the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl and two years from their last playoff appearance, is it time to bench Colin Kaepernick?
The quarterback was once again ineffective on Sunday as the 49ers fell to 2-6 with a 27-6 loss in St. Louis. Kaepernick completed just 20 of 41 passes for 162 yards, with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
San Francisco is now averaging just 13.6 points per game for the season.
With his Week 3 outing against Arizona (4 interceptions and no touchdowns) serving as Kaepernick's low point this season, he looks very little like the quarterback that led his team to a 17-6 record and two deep postseason runs in his first two years as a starter.
San Francisco is in the NFC West basement and the entire team has looked poor this season. With so many players having retired in the offseason or current performers dealing with injuries (running back Carlos Hyde and receiver Anquan Boldin both missed Sunday as they recover from injuries, and it's feared running back Reggie Bush tore his ACL against the Rams), this is definitely shaping up to be a lost season for the 49ers.
But should it continue to include Kaepernick as the starter? Kaepernick has just 6 touchdown passes in eight games, and he now has five games where he didn't throw a single touchdown. He isn't making costly mistakes (he's thrown five picks, four in that one game), but he certainly isn't doing much to help the 49ers win games either.
NFL Films' Greg Cosell did a film study on Kaepernick after Week 3 and highlighted some of his bad habits.
San Francisco wisely structured Kaepernick's contract in 2014 essentially as a series of one-year contracts, with very little up-front guaranteed money, a deal that may have hinted at the franchise's belief in Kaepernick as its long-term starter.
The caveat to benching or ultimately releasing Kaepernick, however, is that Blaine Gabbert is the team's backup. Gabbert was barely a 50 percent passer in his two-plus seasons as Jacksonville's starter, winning just five of 27 games and throwing more interceptions (24) than touchdowns (23).
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