All signs point to Colin Kaepernick starting at quarterback for the 49ers this Sunday against the Saints except the one held by coach Jim Harbaugh.
Harbaugh continued to decline opportunities to name this week’s starting quarterback at his Friday press conference. Harbaugh said that reports that he’s told Kaepernick he’s starting are “not factual” and offered no comment when asked if the quarterbacks knew who the starter would be.
“We feel like there’s no competitive advantage for us to release that information for our organization and our team,” Harbaugh said, via the team’s website. “Like any position, we don’t get into what the roles going to be and how we’re going to use it.”
When asked if he felt there was a competitive advantage to the other team if the 49ers named their quarterback, Grant Cohn of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that Harbaugh said “one percent” and that he’s willing to chase that one percent in this case. If Kaepernick isn’t the starter, the 49ers have run a pretty excellent misinformation campaign this week. Having said that, it is hard to imagine that the Saints haven’t prepared for both Kaepernick and Alex Smith.
Speaking of Smith, Harbaugh said that he will be cleared to play on Saturday as long as he doesn’t show any concussion symptoms between now and then. He’s listed as questionable on the team’s injury report and that’s the best you could say about his chances of starting in Week 12 as well.