Purdy: Gabbert proving a serviceable starter; notebook.
His competent play could mean he has future with 49ers
SANTA CLARA — Blaine Gabbert keeps passing the audition. As a professional quarterback, he keeps proving himself serviceable if not spectacular. Whether that means anything at all, in terms of Gabbert’s long-term 49ers outlook, is still unfathomable and indecipherable, sort of like NFL officiating.
“Playing the position of quarterback, you are the face of this team whether you like it or not,” Gabbert said Sunday after the 49ers’ narrower-than-expected 19-13 loss to Arizona. “You’re put in a position to lead. It’s a position I cherish. And I’m going to do my best to lead them to wins down the road.”
Just how far down the road, though? Only through early January? Or on through 2016 and 2017?
Let’s face it. There aren’t many grounds to keep paying attention to the rest of this 49ers’ lost season. But the unfolding situation with Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick — call it “Quarterback Mystery Future Theatre” — might be the best reason.
You know the basic plotline. Popular incumbent Kaepernick was inconsistent through eight games. He was benched. His backup, Gabbert, stepped in to beat Atlanta. Kaepernick suddenly decided on surprise left shoulder surgery. Gabbert is in charge the rest of the way.
And it seems plenty of 49ers are pleased by that, if not downright blissful. We know this because, even in the wake of Sunday’s defeat, Gabbert’s wide receivers were overtly complimentary of his game.
“Blaine played awesome,” said Torrey Smith, who caught a 41-yard pass from Gabbert to set up a third-quarter field goal. “He was able to showcase his skills and prove that he belongs in this league. Blaine can play ball. But we need to get some wins to show for it.”
Anquan Boldin, who had eight catches for 93 yards, doubled down on the Gabbert praise with very little prompting.
“You guys see it — he’s poised, he’s under control,” Boldin told reporters. “He understands where to go with the ball, when he needs to get rid of it. … He has everybody fighting for him. Guys are out there making plays for him, blocking their butts off. Receivers are getting open and catching the ball.”
Those remarks made you rub your eyes and check Sunday’s box score, just to make certain that Smith and Boldin weren’t talking about Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers.
Let’s check. No, the box score had Gabbert’s name. It revealed that he completed 25 of 36 pass attempts for 318 yards with one touchdown throw and one interception. Which is pretty decent, or at least not horrible. Against this same Arizona defense in September, Kaepernick completed 9 of 19 passes for 67 yards with four interceptions.
And what about this? Sunday’s box score even noted that Gabbert had a better passer rating (94.4) for the game than Arizona’s Carson Palmer (80.3), being mentioned in some circles as a league MVP candidate.
That said, Gabbert’s team lost. And he made several errors. His worst occurred on the 49ers’ crucial last offensive series. He wound up taking a sack on a third-down play from the Arizona 30-yard line. This set up a fourthand-20 situation that resulted in Boldin catching a pass 2 yards short of the first-down marker. Ballgame.
“I can’t take a sack in that situation,” Gabbert said of the third-down play. “I just got to find a way to get the ball out. … All you can ask for is the ball at the end of the game with a chance to win. I failed to put a touchdown on the board. That’s on me.”
So you can add accountability to Gabbert’s positive qualities. None of that means he will be the 49ers’ starting quarterback beyond the season’s last game Jan. 3 against the St. Louis Rams at Levi’s Stadium.
Common wisdom is that Kaepernick’s career with the 49ers is done because of his nonguaranteed base salary of $13.9 million for the 2016 season. By contrast, Gabbert’s compensation will be around $2.2 million. However, general manager Trent Baalke has said it would be wrong to speculate on anything, including the assumption that Kaepernick will be gone.
Kaepernick was, however, nowhere to be seen Sunday.
Still recuperating from his shoulder operation, he was watching the game from … um, somewhere. Nobody could say exactly. Coach Jim Tomsula said Kaepernick was staying away from the facility and stadium, as most surgical rehab players do, because the team doesn’t want them exposed to “infections and all that stuff.”
Tomsula said he last communicated with Kaepernick on Tuesday, exchanging texts after the medical procedure, as the coach usually does with all his players who have surgery. Gabbert said he spoke with Kaepernick on Saturday.
“Hope he’s doing well,” Gabbert said. “Surgery’s never fun, and it takes awhile to bounce back from that.”
Meanwhile, these next five weeks will essentially serve as a continuing audition for Gabbert, to see if he should be given serious full-time starting consideration — and to see if Kaepernick is expendable over the winter. It must be a weird deal for Gabbert to ponder before he goes to sleep every night. He claims otherwise.
“It’s just one game at a time,” Gabbert said after his postgame shower. “That was my mindset when I got the nod versus Atlanta. It’s going to be my mindset this week versus Chicago. … You focus on the details.”
The smart thing for the 49ers, clearly, is to keep as many quarterback options available as are feasible into the offseason — which should include a draft pick next spring. Kaepernick’s contract complicates things. There will be more debate about that. But say this much about what we’ve seen the last few weeks:
The 49ers need to keep Blaine Gabbert as one of those options. Because verily, the “Quarterback Mystery Future Theatre” has several more Sunday performances to unfurl.