Blaine Gabbert: QB has learned he can accomplish more by doing less.
After he looked smooth and confident in the pocket in his first start with the 49ers, Blaine Gabbert was asked the obvious question: What the heck got into him?
In other words, where was the quarterback who looked so skittish during three disastrous seasons in Jacksonville?
Gabbert explained that he’s learned he can accomplish more by doing less.
“I think just knowing that checkdowns aren’t a bad thing,” Gabbert said, later adding: “It’s about taking what the defense gives you.”
Sound familiar? It should for those who have followed the 49ers’ recent QB history.
Gabbert’s answer echoed that of Alex Smith, another highly drafted quarterback (No. 1 overall in 2005) who endured an awful start to his career. Of course, the Chiefs quarterback finally tasted success in 2011, his seventh season with the 49ers, and he attributed the turnaround to a less-is-more approach.
“If it’s 3rd-and-10, go through your read,” Smith said in 2012. “And if it says to push the ball downfield, then push it. But if it says to take the checkdown, then take the checkdown. And I said this a lot last year — I felt like I did less.”
After one start with the 49ers, it’s premature to suggest Gabbert, 26, will follow Smith’s path from wretchedness to respectability. However, his debut in a 17-16 win over the Falcons on Nov. 8 suggested it’s not a laughable premise.
Still, Gabbert’s promising performance came at home against a middling defense with a featherweight pass rush. On Sunday, Gabbert would sway far more skeptics if he can reprise that effort at Seattle, where he’ll face the NFL’s second-ranked defense in the league’s most ear-splitting environment.
The stakes were raised for both Gabbert and the team Saturday when Colin Kaepernick was placed on season-ending injured reserve. Gabbert, previously the starter on a week-by-week basis, could now have seven more starts to prove he
can be the team’s answer at quarterback.
The 49ers traded a sixth-round pick for Gabbert, the No. 10 overall pick in 2011, because they saw similarities to Smith, whose NFL opening also featured endless offensive coordinators and subpar supporting casts. Smith and Gabbert were both 21 when they made their first NFL start.
“There were some similarities to what we felt Alex Smith went through,” said offensive coordinator Geep Chryst, who was Smith’s quarterbacks coach from 2011-12. “And we felt like Blaine had all this talent and, as a young player, maybe a change of scenery would be good for him.”
Another similarity: Both Smith and Gabbert, eager to justify their draft status, both began their career by forcing high-degree-of-difficulty throws that often ended in disaster.
Gabbert struggled in the 2014 preseason, but he flourished this summer by completing routine passes. Gabbert completed 23 of 28 passes for 201 yards (108.8 rating) in three exhibition games. His average pass was thrown just 4.6 yards downfield, according to Pro Football Focus.
Quarterbacks coach Steve Logan said in September the idea was to build Gabbert’s confidence with plays he’d run endlessly in the offseason. Logan viewed it as a sensible approach for a scarred quarterback.
“Get repetitive with the plays and get them comfortable so they back off the anxiety of their previous experience,” Logan said. “Slow the game down: ‘You don’t have to go win every game, let’s build this step by step.’ ”
One of Gabbert’s first steps as a starter with the 49ers wasn’t remarkable. In his first series against the Falcons, he tossed a 6-yard checkdown pass on 3rdand-10.
This week, it was clear he now shares Smith’s philosophy on checkdown passes.
“I think any quarterback, when you want to perform, you start pressing and trying to push the ball downfield, (whether) it’s open or not,” Gabbert said. “But as you mature playing this position and being in the NFL, you realize you just take what the defense is giving you.”