NFL Rumors: San Francisco 49ers avoided Colin Kaepernick running plays over injury

Early during the 2013 season, the San Francisco 49ers seemed to heavily limit Colin Kaepernick‘s running plays.

The signal caller was often seen pulling up or sitting in the pocket far longer than he normally would have and designed plays to set Kaepernick free were few and far between. It was a complete reversal from what we had seen the season before, leading some to believe the 49ers were attempting to avoid getting Kaepernick injured.

And while that may have been part of it, according to Jim Harbaugh, Kaepernick’s foot injury was more serious than lead on, which is why the team limited designed quarterback running plays.

"“I can see it,” Harbaugh said of Kaepernick’s foot. “He doesn’t verbalize it and he says he’s fine and he’s going to play through it, which I respect. If it ever got to the point where I thought it was hurting him or an injury could be worse or he was hurting the team, I’d step in.”The 49ers did step in, Harbaugh admitted, to reduce the number of times the 49ers called plays in their quarterback-driven run game early in the season. Kaepernick rushed 94 times for 524 yards during the regular season. He added 243 yards on 26 rushing attempts in just three playoff games."

Harbaugh would not confirm if Kaepernick suffered the injury during the Green Bay Packers contest in Week 1 on the Clay Matthews illegal hit, rather saying it happened in ‘one of those games’, referring to the early part of the season.