Originally Posted by
BCR
Harbaugh essentially idiot proofed the offense for Kap, hence why he was always a highly rated QB by advanced stats, but the 49ers were generally bottom 5 in raw passing offensive production.
It's all about how you coach guys like him. If his coach cuts off half the field and plays to his strengths, he'll succeed within that framework. He can't quickly mentally go through his progressions. He just doesn't have that. He's not particularly accurate.
He is an elite power runner for a QB. Most QB's, when they run, you're worried if they get up. He's not that. He can get through his progressions if you roll him out and let him buy his brain a few moments with his feet, and if he can do that, he has a rocket on intermediate routes, so really it just comes down to pairing his skillset with a coach who prefers to play that type of offense. He meshed perfectly with Harbaugh because he's a run, don't lose the game, we'll play great defense and win with field position thinker. He's never going to be a conventionally great QB.
Great Qbs can take some guy who had 40 catches for 500 yards in other systems and throw them open and they put up career stats. That's the elite guys. He'll never be that guy. He's the guy who can thrive if almost everything else is in place and you just need him to make a couple big plays a game and move the chains in a crucial spot. He's better at that than almost anyone because you can perfectly gameplan him yet he's an elite athlete that just straight breaks a tackle and then is off for 40 yards, or breaks the tackle and heaves it across the field to the guy who is invariably open because the defenders broke for the line trying to stop him. He has a place in the league, but if the Niners are looking at going young and rebuilding, you might as well move him. If they want to spend on defense and keep trying to win 20-13 games, I'd keep him.