Colin Kaepernick's Player Profile

Brilliant career at Nevada starting 4 years and accumulating more total yards than anybody in College football. High lighted by an upset win of power house Boise State. Kapernick has good size, athleticism, arm strength and speed. He has great playing experience, with no major injury concerns, hes a competitor, hard worker who shows a great passion for the game. He is good at making side line throws and underneath routes where he puts a great zip on the ball, also has shown good touch on throws to the outside. With 4.5 40 speed, Kapernick is fast and adept at running for yards, you can design plays for him to pick up yards with his legs, he can use this ability when plays break down to buy time. He must learn to keep his eyes down the field, but he fits the mold of a QB that can extend the play which is of great value right now.

Kapernick has all the tools you look for in a franchise QB but he also comes with some concerns as well. At Nevada he was not in a system that produces pro QBs. Coming from a mid major conference the jump in competition will be greater than other QBs in the draft. He will have to relearn when to take off and run and to be more patient in the pocket and make the NFL reads. At 6ft 5 Colin has a lean build, and based on how much he ran in College it is fair to question how long he will be able to stay on the field if he continues to take off and run as often as he does. He is best at zipping the ball to his receiver on sideline and underneath routes, or lobbing well placed balls to his wrs in the end zone, but he has not showed a lot of using the seam of the field or keeping safeties honest using the deep 3rd level of the field. The biggest question that stands in the way of Colin being a really good QB in the NFL is whether or not his elongated delivery is going to be easily read and taken advantage of by NFL DBs. Since the end of his season he has kept his same unconventional delivery but has been able to quiet critics by how accurate and how much velocity he puts on his ball.

I think Kapernick has the talent of a 2nd rd pick or even back of the 1st round. Usually guys that dominate at a non BCS conference can make it if they have the work ethic, which Colin has. Based on his weaknesses I wonder if safeties are going to have an easy time reading him. In college, the safeties had to support the run vs him and they were not close to the athletes he will face on Sundays. Kapernick does not take the top off a D with deep throws, which may allow safeties to cheat an extra step to read his long throwing motion and make plays on the ball. I think if he plays on a team that runs well will make a big difference by keeping safeties honest, also getting a good repore with a tight end or a deep threat to take advantage of over aggressive safeties.
Profile submitted by: Tom Patterson

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