49ers coach Chip Kelly announced on Monday that the team will give quarterback Colin Kaepernick another start in Week Seven.
Kaepernick started for the first time in almost a year against the Bills last Sunday and went 13-of-29 for 187 yards and a touchdown while also running for 66 yards on eight carries. The passing numbers weren’t great and Bills cornerback Stephon Gilmore said after the game that Kaepernick “can’t really throw,” but Kelly said he saw some good things from Kaepernick.
“I think there are some things Colin did that you can build upon,” Kelly said, via the San Francisco Chronicle. “For his first extended playing time since last year, I thought there were some real positives. We need to continue to try to get him going. He did a good job keeping the ball out of harm’s way; he didn’t throw any interceptions. It didn’t seem like there were any balls where you said, ‘Geez, that was a close one.’ Sometimes you can have a game where you didn’t throw any interceptions, but you should have and the defense just dropped them.”
Kaepernick was 8-of-11 for 135 yards in the first half and found Torrey Smith for a long touchdown, which qualifies as the kind of stuff the 49ers would like to see more of against the Buccaneers. Even if things don’t take a sharp turn for the better, it would be hard to argue that they’ve seen better from Gabbert or could expect much more from Christian Ponder and that leaves little reason not to see how things play out with Kaepernick at least a little while longer.