Blaine Gabbert the better fit in Chip Kelly’s offense over Colin Kaepernick?

Blaine Gabbert may have busted with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but is he the better long-term fit at starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers?

The San Francisco 49ers will have themselves an intriguing starting quarterback battle in 2016 training camp. Who will lead the 49ers on fall Sundays in 2016: former face of the franchise Colin Kaepernick or former failed Jacksonville Jaguars starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert?

With a new head coach in town in former Oregon Ducks and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly running his patented up-tempo offense, it seems that entering training camp it is Gabbert who is leading Kaepernick in the 2016 49ers quarterback race, according to ESPN.

Gabbert became the 49ers starter after Kaepernick struggled with his accuracy and an expanded playbook in 2015. Though Kaepernick once took the league by storm in 2012, helping get San Francisco to the Super Bowl, he has since failed to progress as a pocket passer.

While Gabbert still receives immense criticism for his well-documented struggles with the Jaguars, he was deemed cerebral enough to grab former 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh’s attention in 2014. Harbaugh and Kelly are both no-nonsense, highly intelligent, albeit challenging head coaches.

Though Kaepernick’s arm talent and scrambling presence are undeniable, he has struggled with leadership and above the shoulders quarterbacking. When he wasn’t laying backside on the turf in Jacksonville, Gabbert has been a dual-threat passer since his time starring for the Missouri Tigers.

While Gabbert’s physical skill set isn’t quite that of Kaepernick’s, his ability to lead San Francisco in the second half of 2015 on a pretty bad football team might make him the likely winner of the 49ers quarterback job.

It sounds a tad insane, but Gabbert has the potential to be the best quarterback Kelly has had to work with in the NFL. Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez, and Sam Bradford all had career best years under Kelly in Philadelphia.

If Gabbert isn’t forced to run for his life behind a bad 49ers offensive line, there’s a strong chance he not only wins the job outright over Kaepernick, but could be the 49ers’ solution at quarterback for at least the next few years under Kelly. Crazier things have happened in the NFL before, so we’ll just have to wait and see how this quarterback battle unfolds this summer.

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