Now that Colin Kaepernick has been sent to the bench, it's time to ask the next logical 49ers question: Who is the new quarterback Blaine Gabbert and how did he get here?
Ironically, the man in the Bay Area who best knows the answer to those questions is Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio. Gabbert was a highly-touted quarterback from the University of Missouri when the Jacksonville Jaguars, coached by Del Rio, selected him with the No. 10 overall pick in the 2011 draft.
A failed tenure in Jacksonville paved the way to the exit for both Del Rio and Gabbert, who left in March of 2014 when San Francisco dealt a 6th-round pick to the Jaguars to pick up its new backup quarterback. At the time of the trade, then-49ers coach Jim Harbaugh thought Gabbert still had great potential.
"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," Harbaugh said after the trade on March 11, 2014. "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 6-foot-4, 235 pounds and the owner of a strong arm as well as the intangibles (see strong leadership) NFL teams look for, Gabbert was seen as a can't-miss pro quarterback. But Gabbert's talents still haven't translated from college as he's won just five of the 27 games he's started in his five-year NFL career while looking painfully uncomfortable in the pocket.
Gabbert's rookie season with Jacksonville was a nightmare by all accounts and his struggles -- he led the NFL with 14 fumbles and only scatter-armed Tim Tebow had a worse completion percentage than his 50.8 -- helped Del Rio get fired late in 2011.
Gabbert troubles continued in 2012, a torn labrum in his left shoulder suffered against the Raiders didn't help matters, as Jacksonville had its worst season ever at 2-14. The next season was a short but sour one for Gabbert as he threw one TD and had seven interceptions through three games before a lacerated right hand and a hamstring injury sent him to the sidelines for the rest of 2013.
Gabbert spent almost all of last season on the sidelines for the 49ers, his only real action coming when he relieved Kaepernick late in a 42-17 loss in Denver. Gabbert went 3-for-7 for 38 yards and a touchdown pass in mop-up duty that day.
Now Kaepernick has lost his starting job to Gabbert after a double-digit loss to the Rams in St. Louis last Sunday. In the irony of ironies, Gabbert's last NFL start ended in a double-digit loss in St. Louis by the Jaguars on Oct. 6, 2013.
Gabbert's next opportunity to prove he's not a failed NFL quarterback begins with Sunday's game at Levi's Stadium against Atlanta.
