I thought a lot of people liked him coming out of college but I am reading a lot of people seem to be shocked at his success. I thought he'd be a great pick-up and wanted the Hawks to draft him in the 2nd, and was not happy when the 9ers picked him up. I am more surprised at how many people are surprised that he is a good QB, did he just fall under the "Running QB that can't throw well enough to make it in the NFL" label?

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I'm not surprised in the least. But, I also had a hunch Alex Smith would become relevant when Harbaugh arrived. Actually, you and I disussed that when he was hired, Les.

While's Kap's playing well, I also think that SF QB gig is a better one than Farve took over with the Vikings. 4 1st rounders across the OL, not including Vernon Davis. And, to his credit, Harbaugh does a lot of slick isht in the running game. But, again, that's due to the wealth of talent across their line. I'd expect ANY QB to atleast be Alex Smith for the 49ers, if not better. Tjack, Flynn, Henne, anyone would be at least a 11 win QB there.

What PC and JS didn't like was his Football IQ from the sound of it. They saw him as an "athelete", a great one. We'll see what occurs when SF doesn't just have to line-up to have the advantage, and Kap has to QB a bit more.

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@ryanadamdavis

I have to admit that I am surprised and impressed by his performance during the playoffs. I felt that he lacked the poise and situational awareness at this point to win playoff games, b/o his play in the Rams and Seahawk games.

I was expecting/rooting for him to melt down during the playoffs, but he has played well. I am surprised that he does not throw more interceptions. I imagine this is because he always has the option of pulling down the ball and running. Still, it is impressive.

Not surprised at all. Tim Tebow could run that offense effectively.

The degree of it, and under the circumstances, yeah. He seems like the same guy that came out of Nevada. Which is fine. But I imagined he'd have to become more of a three read guy to have success. I underestimated his athleticism and toughness.

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“We need to be challenged, ... and we need to be under the gun to respond.” --Pete Carroll

I'm not surprised given what he did in college and preseason, but something about him just tells me he won't last long.

I'm not particularly surprised - highly mobile quarterbacks have and will always have a degree of success, but usually the supporting cast isn't good enough to make up for it, in SF that's not the case.

In fact, I can't really think of a highly mobile QB (with a big arm) who HASN'T been particularly successful

Kaepernick can beat teams with his arm and does not have to run or be a threat to run to have success. He has shown that ability on the NFL level. He has a rocket arm. He has shown the ability to read defenses. Even his worse games have been average by NFL standards. All this focus on his running ability is a joke. The guy appears to be a complete player. It is only his 10th start coming up but that is what actual evidence and not just wishful thinking is showing. What makes Kaepernick, Wilson, RG3 so dangerous is that they have wheels to beat you like Steve Young did but that is only part of their game. They are all passers first. We will see if he can keep it up. He is a hard worker and it will be interesting to see how he adapts as he gets more experience and how defenses in the league adapt. But there is plenty of film on this guy already.

The way to beat Kaepernick is to dominate the offensive line and not give him time or space. If he has time to throw or run, he will beat you. That is how it is with any quarterback. That is why this is a team sport.

Akili Smith, Quincy Carter, Joe Webb, Pat White, Michael Bishop, Adrian McPherson, Joe Hamilton, Josh Johnson, Marques Tuiasosopo all come to mind. You need at least some accuracy.

Troy Smith

I recall many wanting him and were disapointed that he went to the 49ers, we all were thinking he would beat out Alex in year one. Didn't happen but there was something there many thought was of value.

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I'm a huge Ohio State fan, and I have to disagree with this. Physically, Smith was a very average prospect. He had a decent arm, but not a cannon, and had good mobility, but nowhere near the escapability of the other QBs mentioned in this thread. Smith's best attributes were his intelligence and leadership. In 20 career games with the Ravens and Niners (8 starts), he only rushed for 230 yards on 52 attempts. That's barely over 10 yards per game.

Troy Smith had a great arm, better than Wilson's. He had good "escapability"- his problem was that once he was flushed he'd never get his eyes back downfield again. He also had some accuracy problems and whatever leader he was in college he wasn't for the 49ers. He's a lot like Josh Portis, actually.

On topic- not surprised by Kaepernick. I thought the Seahawks exposed Kaepernick in their December meeting, so Kaepernick will need to grow in 2013 as opponents learn from Seattle's example. Unfortunately for us, Kaepernick has a ton of room for growth so it's possible he might actually improve next year despite being game planned.

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"I believe there’s merit to the idea that once something in life becomes conventional, it’s no longer the safest path to success." -Matt Waldman
"If everyone's thinking alike, no one's thinking." -Bill Walsh

Seattle did not expose Kaepernick at all. If they did don't you think opponents would of learned by it already and not be loosing to him in the playoffs.

Seattle won not so much for their play on Kaepernick but for their play against the 49ers defense. Kaepernick played average but was not the reason for loosing this game at all. The 49ers defense was gassed at the end of the year with out their most valuable defensive player coming off a big emotional win in New England the following week. First play of the game on offense, Seattle ran right at Justin Smith's replacement, Ricky Jean Francios, and Marshawn Lynch ran for a touchdown pretty much untouch. Looking back at that game, considering Seattle's home field advantage, the way the defense played, Kaepernick played average.

Tom Brady 36-58 395 Yards 2 touchdowns 2 Interceptions @ Seattle
Tony Romo 23-40 251 Yards 1 Touchdown 1 Interception @ Seattle
Aaron Rodgers 26-39 223 Yards 0 Touchdowns 0 Interceptions @ Seattle
Colin Kaepernick 19-36 244 Yards 1 Touchdown 1 Interception @ Seattle

Did you guys expose Romo, Rodgers, and Brady, and once teams learn from it in the offseason those players won't be any good either?

Give Seattle credit. They blasted the 49ers defense that night and that night the 49ers defense sucked. Seattle is almost unbeatable in the Clink. They have a good defense that becomes very good at home. Kaepernick played fine that night, nothing special but exposed he was not.

Kaepernick picked up a lot of that yardage and his sole TD in garbage time while his team was down 42-6. He also got two of his targets injured on very poor throws early in the game. He looked completely lost out there.

Brady and Rodgers were involved in highly competitive games and got their yardage when it mattered.

Maybe you didn't watch the game, but Kaepernick was incredibly uncomfortable. It was also by far his worst stat line of the season. Kaepernick still needs an eternity to check his 2nd read, and Seattle exploited that by pressuring him and then anticipating his escape route. The result was just 4.4 YPC on a ton of aborted passes. Even Kaepernick's 1 TD pass (in garbage time) looked like it would have been overturned had the officials given a shit at that point. Kaepernick looked like a broken man in his postgame presser.

I'm not disrespecting Kaepernick. He's a talented player who will probably continue to get better. But he does currently have obvious weaknesses and in that game Seattle exposed them. You are a blind homer if you can't see that. Or maybe you do know it and just want to be a curmudgeon.

As far as the other QBs- Brady actually ripped us to shreds that game, we were very lucky to win. Romo was better than his stat line, which was still decent. Rodgers- yeah Rodgers kind of got his ass kicked by our defense- fair point. He had to revert to captain checkdown to find any effectiveness. I don't think we really exposed Rodgers though- I just think his O-line had a horrific night.

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"I believe there’s merit to the idea that once something in life becomes conventional, it’s no longer the safest path to success." -Matt Waldman
"If everyone's thinking alike, no one's thinking." -Bill Walsh

Romo was the best player on the field that Sunday. He was amazing, really.

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@ryanadamdavis

Witten was having a terrible start to the season, he picked it up later in the year. As well as Dez. The interception was not good, but that was Romo being Romo trying to make a play. Witten left a lot of money on the carpet. The entire team did a bad job though. Fumbling the kickoff and having a punt blocked, Dallas should have left after the 1st quarter.

No one could put Romo on the carpet, he was spinning out of sacks all game long. The second half was all Seattle though. Flat out just kicked off into the Cowboys behind.

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I watched the game. Maybe you are missing my point. What quarterback looks comfortable in Clink on a nationally televised game at night when your team can't stop anything on defense. Has any of those quarterbacks looked comfortable? You are saying Seattle exposed parts of his game that will be realized in the offseason. I don't see how you can support that. I knew his touchdown came in garbage time but it probably would have came earlier had Manningham not fumbled when he tore his knee out.

If his game was exposed, ask the Falcons or Packers.

One sub-par to average game in that situation does not equal game exposed. I could of made that same post about Russell Wilson's game against the 49ers earlier in the year.

I don't want to beat a dead horse, we are not going to reach an agreement on this. I am just going to say, its just not accurate to say his game was exposed and that suddenly teams are going to review that tape again and see how they can stop him. No Seattle has a very good secondary and defense. They are very hard to beat at home. The list of QBs uncomfortable at Clink has included plenty pro bowl quarterbacks, none of them were exposed.

Kaepernick did not impress me terribly during the regular season. A lot of quarterbacks with no tape on them look like sudden superstars. Once they get some game tape out there, it's a whole different story.

He has impressed me in the playoffs. While it's fairly common to see guys with little experience come in and do well their first few regular season games, it's a whole 'nuther thing to do it against quality opponents in the playoffs. It'll surprise me even more if he strings together three stellar playoff performances in a row without a letdown, especially in the biggest dance of them all.

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