San Francisco 49ers: Lynch, Shanahan Explain Moving On From Kaepernick

The San Francisco 49ers have shaken up their quarterback depth chart this offseason – and both GM John Lynch and HC Kyle Shanahan explained why Colin Kaepernick wasn’t an option.

It’s not really that much of a surprise that the San Francisco 49ers and Colin Kaepernick parted ways this offseason. It’s surprising that Kaepernick hasn’t gotten a sniff of even a backup job so far, but that’s another story for another day.

When asked about it though, both GM John Lynch and HC Kyle Shanahan offered up their views on why Kaepernick wasn’t seriously pursued as an option for the 49ers. While Shanahan gave a much more well reasoned explanation, Lynch offered one that’s a bit of a head scratcher.

With rumors and innuendo about Kaepernick being blackballed by the league for his national anthem protest a year ago, Lynch didn’t do himself any favors with his reasoning for not giving serious consideration to signing him.

If anything, in the minds of some, it only adds to the idea that there is a concerted effort to keep Kaepernick from playing in the league again.

When asked about the quarterback who led the 49ers to three straight Conference Championships and one Super Bowl, Lynch had this to say:

"“At one point, there was some information as were kind of going through our own quarterback thing and it’s kind of what happens in free agency. You get information and you set the market for guys you’re talking to and things and there was information that came to us and I know that thing has blown up and I don’t want to get in other people’s business but there was some information that he was very close. Obviously it didn’t happen. I don’t know what happened.”"

If you wanted to further the case that there is a bit of a conspiracy against Kaepernick, you could parse out about a dozen things from that statement that would add fuel to your fire. First off, where did this supposed information come from?

Next: 49ers Might Already Have QB Plan In Place

And even if that were true, that Kaepernick was “close” to signing with another team, why not make him an offer if you truly were interested in keeping him? That’s something that happens in free agency too – teams battle it out for the services of a given player.

It’s not often, if a team wants a certain player, that they hear another team is interested and they just roll over and give up.

Shanahan though, perhaps pulling Lynch’s bacon out of the fire, gave a much more reasoned, palatable, and performance-based response.

"“I think Colin has a certain skillset that you can put a specific offense to it that he can be very successful in. When we first looked at it, you’ve got to look at each quarterback and what type of offense you want to put in. That wasn’t necessarily the direction I wanted to go. I wanted to put in a different type of offense.”"

And after hearing his words and thoughts on the subject, all one can really say to that is, “fair enough.”

It seems reasonable that Shanahan wants to run a different type of offense – one not necessarily conducive to a player with Kaepernick’s skill set.

While some might still balk at the notion that Brian Hoyer and/or Matt Barkley is a better quarterback option than Kaepernick – spoiler alert, he’s really not – in Shanahan’s system, Hoyer and/or Barkley might be a better fit. Their skill set might be more adaptable to Shanahan’s system than Kaepernick’s.

However, the perception that Kaepernick is being blackballed for taking an unpopular stance on an issue will continue to persist when quarterbacks who clearly are inferior by most every metric continue to take up roster spaces.

Seriously – is there anybody out there who truly believes that Geno Smith and Josh McCown are better quarterbacks than Kapernick?

But at least, it seems, that the 49ers aren’t part of that supposed conspiracy. At least, if you ignore Lynch’s words, and listen to Shanahan instead.