Colin Kaepernick still the San Francisco 49ers’ QB

The prevailing thought when Chip Kelly was hired to coach the San Francisco 49ers was he was brought in to save quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Then some drama came into the equation when rumors surfaced that Kaepernick no longer wanted to play for the 49ers, instead wanting to play for the New York Jets.

And at the same time, there’s a clause in his contract that allows the 49ers to release him before April 1. After that date, his contract that only has injury guarantees becomes fully guaranteed. But at the NFL’s scouting combine in Indianapolis, general manager Trent Baalke made it clear Wednesday that he will be on the team’s roster on April 1.

So there’s no longer any reason to belive that Kaepernick will be anything but a 49er in 2016. The only to wonder now but not much of given Kaepernick’s salary is if he’s the guaranteed starter. Baalke was asked whether Kaepernick would be that or if he would have to compete with Blaine Gabbert, who played pretty well last year, for the job.

And Baalke said, “I think the good thing is we’ve got two guys that have gone into games who’ve proven they can play and Colin’s done some awful good things through his career, won some big games for the San Francisco 49ers, and [we] expect him to come back.

“The main focus right now is health, getting him healthy. He’s done a good job with his rehab. Talking to the medical staff, that seems to be going very well, and [we] just look forward to getting him back and getting him working with this coaching staff.”

At 28, Kaepernick, is recovering from surgeries on his left shoulder, right thumb, and left knee. And according to ESPN Stats & Information, Kaepernick has a salary-cap hit of $16.8 million in 2016. So the organization still has faith in him, feeling like they need only to get him back healthy and have a system that fits him.

In 2016, Kaepernick will be playing for his third head coach since he joined the 49ers in 2011, as former Eagles coach Chip Kelly was hired to replace the fired Jim Tomsula. Kaepernick was drafted in the second round of the 2011 draft, when Jim Harbaugh was the team’s coach.

Much has been made about Kelly’s lukewarm endorsement of Kaepernick in his introductory news conference last month. But it turns out that was nothing to worry about as Kelly is just a lukewarm person. Kelly sought the 49ers out first and it was because he has a vision for what he could do with Kaepernick.

We’ll see what happens in 2016!