Is Colin Kaepernick Harder to Game-Plan Against Than Peyton Manning?

If you polled a group of fans and asked them whether they'd rather see their favorite team face Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning or San Francisco 49ers signal-caller Colin Kaepernick, the vast majority would probably go with the latter.

Sure, Kaepernick's a talented young quarterback who's as capable of hurting teams with his legs as he is with his rocket right arm. But, Peyton Manning is...Peyton freaking Manning.

Well, at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis back in March, Andy Benoit of The MMQB posed that very question to a dozen NFL coaches.

The answer was surprising:

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At last year’s combine, just a few weeks after the Super Bowl, I asked a dozen NFL coaches, Conceptually, who would you rather game-plan for and face: Manning or Kaepernick? A solid majority said they’d prefer to face Manning.

Wow.

A man who many—and especially those inside the NFL—agree is one of the five greatest quarterbacks of all time feels less threatening to opponents than a callow fourth-year pro who is still not always comfortable reading the field.

None of those coaches were saying Kaepernick is a better quarterback than Manning, they were just saying he’s more stressful to face. Manning might be able to cut a defense with greater depth and regularity than Kaepernick, but at least the defense knows in what ways he can cut them. With Kaepernick, there’s a terrifying unpredictability.

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To the surprise of absolutely no one, the notion that Kaepernick was somehow "better" was met by derision by many in social media:

With that said, though, Benoit goes out of his way to specify that none of these coaches inferred that Kaepernick was a better quarterback than Manning. Because that, as they say, would be crazy talk.

In fact, Benoit was blunt in his assessment of Kaepernick:

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Colin Kaepernick, a 26-year-old who remains extremely unripe as a progression read passer and almost never unleashes a throw that doesn’t already have a defined window. Kaepernick compensates for this slower quarterbacking with great arm strength. And when he chooses not to throw—which is more often than necessary—he leans on his otherworldly long-striding speed.

It sounds harsh, but it’s true: Kaepernick is iffy fundamentally with amazing athletic tools. On film it can feel like you’re watching a dominant high schooler. In a way, he’s the anti-Manning (though careful about labeling Manning an “iffy athlete”).

Kaepernick’s flaws can be corrected, but you get the sense they won’t ever be fully erased. In players with superhuman raw talent, a reliance on that talent is often permanently imbedded. They don’t develop sound fundamentals because they’ve never had to, and they don’t truly know how. Call this the Michael Vick syndrome.

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However, as hard as it may be for some people to get their heads around, it's not that difficult to see why defensive coaches would rather scheme against Manning than Kaepernick.

With Manning, you know what you're going to get—a pocket quarterback (albeit one of the best ever). The formations you'll face will be similar to the formations you face in the vast majority of games.

There are no such assurances with Kaepernick and the Niners. The 49ers' success on the ground is predicated on the staggering number of different formations they employ. Many of those formations are zone-read looks. Many of those zone-read looks have run-pass options.

And those are just the designed runs. Never mind the innumerable times during a game that Kaepernick pulls it down and takes off.

NFL coaches loathe the unpredictable, and between the zone-read, the funky formations and his improvisation with the football, it doesn't get a lot more unpredictable than Kaepernick.

And yet still I'm not buying it.

Sure, Kaepernick's more unpredictable than Manning. You know what's coming with Peyton.

That doesn't mean you have a snowball's chance in you-know-what of stopping it.

Blitz and you'd better get there, or you're going to get torched over the top. Sit back in a zone and it's Butterball time, because you're going to get carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey.

I'll grant you that Kaepernick causes defensive coordinators to think outside the box, and that creates difficulty when game-planning for the fourth-year pro.

However, when all is said and done, Manning is going to end his career as the most prolific quarterback in NFL history. Game plans to stop No. 18 are as often as not exercises in futility.

Kap makes opponents think outside the box. Manning takes the box and pounds the snot out of opponents with it.

Gary Davenport is an NFL Analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPManor.