SeattleOspreys
New Member
I'd agree that Roman and Harbaugh get some credit for educating Kaepernick on how to audible, as for the split second decisions, I didn't see that weakness so much in the games I saw of him, but even if it were true, I would say that when kaepernick has 1/2 of a season, and when he started he had a different situation than Wilson --- Harbaugh did not keep him on a tight leash at all (unlike the first half of the season where Carroll had a tight reign over Wilson) --- and keep in mind this is not a knock on Wilson or Carroll at all, I'm just saying Kaep was thrust into the starting role in the middle of the season and there was no way they could just slowly let him adjust, he had to master the complex playbook immediately (and Harbaugh/Roman's playbook with all the different formations is very complicated), I would expect a few hiccups along the way -- it doesn't mean he is a poor decision maker, it just means he was a rookie.
Let's not gloss over the fact that Kaep had 2 camps, 2 pre-seasons and we'll say many reps
because he's a Harbaugh draft selection, while Smith was not. Add in the fact, that Kaep
racked up 1000 yds every collegiate season running a r/o / pistol variation that was easy
to implement because Kaep was already familiar with it. Will all of that experience and being
with Harbaugh for 2 years, NOT a rookie, he could do more from jumpstreet.
RWill, on the other hand, had some ota's, initially split reps with 3 QB's and didn't really have
his coming out party until week 3 of the pre-season. Plus, RWill never ran any variation of the
read option at NCST or Wisconsin.
RWill is extremely intelligent to learn a whole Wisconsin playbook over the summer and be so
effective and after borrowing the r/o from the skin's, execute the system in Seattle.
I don't like RWill running from it because of the potential to be blindsided. I don't mind Rwill
scrambling because he has a full view of the field and will look to throw first, then run.
Kaep looks to run first and then throw. You can't say Kaep was a rookie because he'd been
there a good 18 months and knew the variation. It doesn't mean Kaep has poor
decision making but from what I saw, his decision making is below RW's.
i.e. Throwing across his body in attempt to squeeze it into Moss leaving Sherman to
easily jump that route for a pick in the endzone. Rocket arm Qb's and Kaep has a rocket
will make decisions they shouldn't because they believe they can squeeze the ball into
tight windows. (i.e. Brett Favre)