Originally posted by LambdaChi49:
It's a tough situation. I mean all Qbs have bad games but Kaps regression is alarming. In a way he reminds of Cutler. He's capable of being a franchise QB and can get you to the promise land (Kap has) but then he will have games where you just watch wondering "wtf how did this guy even get drafted?"
I don't know man. I don't really know what to think anymore. I'm at a loss. I mean when Alex was around and he had a s**t game with multiple picks we knew it was "out of character" and he was likely forcing s**t. He's just a conservative QB. Kap on the other hand was supposed to be this "smart" running QB who took calculated risks and could do so unlike his predecessor because of his arm strength. Instead...he just looks like a totally different guy out there.
I'm still willing to give him the benefit of doubt. Today he looked completely shell shocked after the first two pick 6s.
what is a 'franchise qb' ? that term has been used so much to basically describe a qb someone likes, it barely says anything nowadays. is cutler a franchise qb ? is dalton ? is cam newton ? is alex smith ?
it's kinda funny to me because people created this myth of kap and almost a cult of kap, thinking he was much better than he actually is, and then when reality catches up to them they first try to make excuses and then completely disown him. instead of just looking at it from objective point of view and seeing who kap is as a qb in the first place.
lets recap quickly. alex smith becomes a much better qb in 2011. most people attribute it to harbaugh. I do not. sure, harbs helped, but in reality our team just got better as a whole. we could afford to win with defense, special teams and run game. defense is a young qbs best friend and while alex smith wasnt young (we'll get to our young qb in a sec), it certainly helped him as well
in 2012 we are rolling, we have decent schedule and alex goes down. kaep emerges and teams are caught offguard. we gain another great running weapon and a potential for big plays teams werent accustomed to seeing from our passing game. playaction is a huge weapon in the arsenal now. we go almost all the way to win the SB and the cult legend of kaep is born. this is what people will cite (team wins) as argument to why kaep is good. he plays pretty well in the playoffs, nonetheless.
but kaep is never a great passing qb throughout all this. he lacks what great passing qbs have- consistency. the 49ers win with defense and run game, something the 49ers fans will scold russ wilson for, ironically enough. numbers do not lie - the 49ers under harbaugh do really well, but theyre exactly .500 in games in the kaep era where they had to throw the ball 25 times or more. Im pretty sure its probably as bad with alex smith as the qb, if not worse. the 49ers won games because of defense
does this mean kap is garbage ? no it does not. kap is still a young qb who has a lot of positives to come with his negatives. its just that most peoples expectations of him were way too high and they created an alternate reality in which kaep was really good as a passer and now is heavily regressing. I wouldnt say hes necessarily heavily regressing- the team simply doesnt have a good defense anymore. with no good D, the run game is not enough. with no good defense, only elite qbs can carry games by themselves, with few exceptions here and there. kaep, just like alex smith are incapable of carrying offense and participating in shootouts. Id say alex smiths better consistency on short passes probably results in less stalled drive, but in general it does not matter- the team made the right choice in trading alex and retaining kaep anyway
defenses win games and win championships. sure, today even if we had a good D we probably would still lose because of a brainfart game by kap. but the facts remains - a good defense will make a quarterback look better than he is. it is no surprise when defense sucks, the qb does not look good.
it is surprising to people react this way after this game after they thought he looked very good in first two games. yeah, when he has a bad game, its very bad. he just falls apart mentally (I had no words for the 3rd pick, Im not even sure what that was)- see the bears game and todays game.
