rlkats":w04lmp2m said:
Palmegranite":w04lmp2m said:
rlkats":w04lmp2m said:
All politics aside, all I see is he was paid more not playing football than he EVER could as a horrible one read QB.
Don't you mean horrible one read QB with:
NFL records for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single game (181 yards), most rushing yards by a quarterback in a single postseason (264 yards) that also led his team to their first Super Bowl appearance in almost 2 decades?
This guy sounds a bit like Cam Newton from 5 years ago.
What did Cam get paid this year?
Yes his major awards was running. Take that away and there you have a one read qb. You need an example? How about EVERY game against the hawks. How about the super bowl. His arm and shitty placement lost the game. Bottom line his running made him famous, his one reads were a joke. Every hawk fan and most Niners (honest) would say the same.
I hate to bring this up again, but no, this is wrong. He was NOT a "one read" QB. That wasn't his weakness. It never has been. What follows could be noticed if you watched him carefully, but there is no need because a former 49ers coach who worked with him spilled the beans: reading defenses wasn't his weakness; anticipatory throwing was (along with his elongated release, which exacerbated that weakness).
What appeared to be "one read" and run was really (usually) a presnap decision to run based on what appeared to be man coverage. It was a pretty successful strategy, considering his crucial runs through his short career.
Where he began to struggle was after the Cardinals game in 2015, when his long release and inability to throw with anticipation resulted in four INTs and two pick sixes. After that game he was even less trustworthy of his eyes (again,
anticipatory throwing was his weakness... an inability to trust what he sees developing before it fully develops). You can see this very, very clearly in the Green Bay Packers game that followed shortly after: on one pass, he quickly made the correct read, to Anquan Boldin, but then hesitated. He hesitated because he was still gunshy, and was unwilling to let it rip with anticipation. He then double clutched, then threw very late, and one hopped it because the defense had finally started to close the hole around Boldin.
So, to summarize: reading defense wasn't Kaepernick's problem. Anticipation was. He had to see it before he threw it. That weakness was exacerbated by a long throwing motion, and it got much worse after a terrible game against the Cardinals where that weakness was fully exploited.
He did not return to functionality until the 2016 season, but at this point he still wasn't really throwing with anticipation, but was instead being extra cautious, taking more sacks and throwing the ball away more.
EDIT- to elaborate: what
looks like Kaepernick freezing after his first read is covered is not that at all. What is really happening is he is making the right read but then hesitating to throw the ball because he has a need to see it open before he throws it (as opposed to throwing the WR open, or releasing the ball prior to the WR makes his break). He generally made the right read during his career, but failed to release the ball with the necessary timing of a successful NFL QB due to his hesitancy to throw with anticipation, along with his long release, which made him doubly gunshy. This was always a mental block, but it wasn't what you all think it was.