Colin Kaepernick's Benching a New Low Point for Post-Harbaugh 49ers

It is official now. Colin Kaepernick's career has reached such lowly depths he is being benched for Blaine Gabbert.

Please read that sentence again. Kaepernick is being benched for Gabbert. That's like Batman losing his job to Paul Blart.

How stunning is this? Go back just a few years, when so many across the NFL looked at Kaepernick, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III as the future of the sport. There was going to be a quarterback renaissance. They were going to be Marino, Elway and Young.

Now, Kaepernick takes a seat. RG3 is so deep on the bench his status is measured in fathoms. Luck's performance against Carolina was inspiring, but he's been simply awful at times this year.

Billy Hurst/Associated Press

The Kaepernick benching news erupted late Monday night. It's not surprising, considering how poorly Kaepernick has played all season, but it is still staggering and difficult to fully digest. It represents, in some ways, the continuing fall of the 49ers since the departure of Jim Harbaugh. The team has been disemboweled, gutted into oblivion and the head coach is in far over his head.

I can tell you, for certain, that Kaepernick had become, as first reported by Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, somewhat isolated in the locker room. One player texted to me Monday night that Kaepernick had "pretty much lost" the locker room when it came to his teammates.

So the post-Harbaugh 49ers continue to be a mess. There's no way this mess would be here had Harbaugh stayed. Before he left, as crazy as he drove everyone there, he was a sort of glue that kept everything intact. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't perfect. But it worked.

Coaching is the key with Kaepernick, and it leads to a larger issue that goes beyond the 49ers, and that's the NFL's handling of its quarterbacks.

Nick Wass/Associated Press

Kaepernick, RG3 and Luck all deserve a significant share of the blame for their ugly situations. Kaepernick never adjusted to the league's adjustment to him. Griffin was at times petulant and impossible to coach. Luck has been sloppy.

Yet all of those players have been in awful organizational and coaching situations. This is Kaepernick's second coaching staff. Same with Griffin. Luck will likely play for his second staff next season.

Griffin played for Mike Shanahan, who ran him into the ground, which was likely the catalyst for his horrific knee injury that has seemingly ruined his career. He has never been the same after that.

Luck has been so horribly served by the Colts that it borders on football malpractice. His offensive line has been putrid, and the coaching staff simply doesn't have the talent to stop Luck's free fall. 

I don't think you'll see Kaepernick or Griffin succeed in the NFL again. Luck will be different. What he did against the Panthers was a sign of how he can recapture the Luck magic of old.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Kaepernick's rapid regression forced the 49ers to bench him, and while that is partly his fault, look at the team around him. The head coach is a pawn of the owner. The receivers are not spectacular. The team just traded away tight end Vernon Davis, who is a shell of himself, but he was at least something of a weapon. The defense is no good. There's almost nothing there around Kaepernick.

The 49ers were disassembled and Kaepernick was left standing, all scapegoat-like. Again, he's not blameless, but like Griffin and Luck, he could have been much better served.

Joe Mahoney/Associated Press

My guess is we'll see Kaepernick play again in San Francisco this season. Gabbert is that bad. The 49ers won't have a choice but to play Kaepernick again.

But his time in San Francisco is over. He's done there. Kaepernick ruined himself, but he was pushed off a cliff by what is now one of the more inept franchises in football.

There was a time when Kaepernick, Griffin and Luck were going to wreck the league.

Then the empire struck back. Griffin was the first casualty.

And now, it's Kaepernick's turn.