Blaine Gabbert Reviving Career Behind Solid Play for 49ers

Though he was unable to lead the San Francisco 49ers to a victory over the rival Arizona Cardinals, quarterback Blaine Gabbert is taking major strides toward resurrecting his NFL career.

Gabbert was a highly touted, 5-star recruit for the Missouri Tigers for the 2008 season. He starred at Mizzou and went on to throw for more than 3,000 yards in each of his two full seasons. 

From there, Gabbert entered the NFL Draft a year early and was selected with the 10th overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars. At the time, the Jaguars traded up to select Gabbert and thought they had found their franchise quarterback.

Gabbert struggled in Jacksonville thanks, in large part, to a lack of weapons on offense. The team drafted Justin Blackmon the following year to help Gabbert, but he flamed out quickly and was beaten up in the process.

The 49ers gave Gabbert a second chance last year, though, when they acquired the former first-round selection in exchange for a sixth-round pick.

At the time of the trade, then coach Jim Harbaugh praised Gabbert and welcomed him to the organization with these comments to Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com:

"

I think he’s a very talented player and his career so far hasn’t gone on to be what he expected, and maybe others expected it to be. But I believe it can be a really powerful opportunity, powerful motivator for a player to say, ‘It wasn’t me, it was my situation.’ And now he has that opportunity.

"

At the time, it seemed as though Harbaugh was toeing the company line. However, in the present moment, it appears as though Gabbert is proving the now University of Michigan head coach right.

Since displacing Colin Kaepernick as San Francisco's starting quarterback, Gabbert has slowly begun to rewrite the "bust" narrative that lies heavily over his head.

Week	Opponent	CMP-ATT	CMP%	YDS	TD	INT	Passer Rating
10	vs. Falcons	15-25	60.0%	185	2	2	76.3
11	@Seahawks	22-34	64.7%	264	1	0	98.2
12	vs. Cardinals	25-36	6.94	318	1	1	94.4

Gabbert was understandably rusty against the Atlanta Falcons, his first time out, on November 8. But he rebounded well after a bye week and torched a solid Seattle Seahawks defense for 264 yards and a touchdown on 22 of 34 passes (64.7 percent). The 49ers lost that game, but Gabbert went back to work this week.

He has shown a great deal of progression over his three starts, and it culminated today in the team's 19-13 loss to the Cardinals.

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

Gabbert almost single-handedly outgained the vaunted Cardinals offense, passing for 318 yards and completing 25 of 36. He even had an 11-yard run. In addition to the gaudy yardage numbers, Gabbert chipped in a touchdown and limited his interception total to one despite being hit four times over the course of the game.

The 26-year-old showed great poise and had the 49ers even with the Cardinals coming out of the third-quarter. The team was held scoreless throughout the fourth quarter, but with less than three minutes on the clock, Gabbert led a solid drive down the field. They surrendered the ball on downs after falling two yards short of a fourth-down conversion.

The game will go down as just another loss on the schedule, but Gabbert finally appears ready to take the jump many expected him to take three years ago.

Gabbert looks more comfortable throwing the football, and he seems to have gained a great deal of maturity after suffering through the early stages of his career. Consider his responses when speaking to the media after the team's Week 12 loss to the Cardinals:

Gabbert just seems to get it, and it's going to pay off in spades as the team has placed a lot of faith in the fifth-year QB.

With the benching of Kaepernick, the 49ers signaled that they were at least ready to entertain the idea of moving in a different direction at the quarterback position. Now that they have placed Kaepernick on IR with a torn labrum, the 49ers have put the load squarely on Gabbert's shoulders for the rest of the season.

Gabbert has responded extremely well, and with Kaepernick's role with the team already in question, the former Jaguar seems to have gained the upper hand in the competition to be named the team's starter when the 49ers break camp in 2016.

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