49ers want Blaine Gabbert to win starting job over Colin Kaepernick?

Now that the NFL Draft has come and gone, it is even less likely that the San Francisco 49ers will trade Colin Kaepernick. Does that mean Chip Kelly wants the 29-year-old to reclaim his spot as the team’s starting quarterback?

At least one beat writer doesn’t think so.

Grant Cohn, who covers the 49ers for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, recently combed through over 600 photos that the Niners have shared on their official team website throughout offseason workouts. He noted that Kaepernick appears in those photos just eight times (some as just a blurry figure), whereas fellow quarterback Blaine Gabbert is prominently displayed in several. In Cohn’s mind, that says a lot.

While it should be noted that Kaepernick had surgeries on his shoulder, knee and thumb and has only recently resumed throwing, Kohn writes that it seems like the 49ers are trying to “embarrass” Kaepernick and could demote him to third string.

I bet the Niners want Colin to lose the quarterback competition. I think the front office is tired of him and his teammates are tired of him, too. I think the Niners want Gabbert to be the starting quarterback and the face of the franchise. That’s why he’s hogging all those photo opportunities.

And I think the 49ers want Colin to be the third-stringer. As a third-string quarterback, the Niners could de-activate Colin every game and save the weekly $125,000 roster bonuses they’d have to pay him.

I think the Niners want to embarrass Colin. Want to make an example out of him. Want to show the rest of the team what happens to a player who doesn’t go along with the program, a player who demands a trade.

He disappears.

Initially, there were reports that Chip Kelly badly wanted to coach Kaepernick. Then came the trade rumors, and there were plenty of them. Now, we have Niners players saying Gabbert is taking control during offseason workouts. There is also this report, which makes Gabbert’s future in San Francisco look very bright.

Kaepernick is going to make plenty of money in 2016, so you can’t feel too badly for him. But if the 49ers have no intention of using him and are making his price tag so high that no team is willing to pay it, that seems awfully petty.