When the 49ers decided to hire Chip Kelly to be their next head coach, all indications were that the future of Colin Kaepernick played a big role in the decision. If that is, in fact, the case, Kelly has a strange way of presenting it.
Kelly was officially introduced in San Francisco on Wednesday, and he refused to commit to Kaepernick as his starting quarterback. Instead, he cited some bogus Collective Bargaining Agreement rules claiming he wasn’t allowed to talk about it.
“I’m not allowed to comment about [Kaepernick] in terms of how he fits into any system because of the CBA rules of we’re not allowed to discuss football, I’m not allowed to say who fits where and how they fit,” Kelly said. “So I’m gonna wait until April 4 to discuss Kap and the offense.”
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio in an email that Kelly’s interpretation of the CBA is incorrect. Even if Kelly is not — technically — allowed to speak with players about football until April, he can talk about any player that is under contract with the 49ers.
As Florio notes, Kelly had plenty to say about how talented Nick Foles was when Chip was hired by the Eagles three years ago. Kelly did call Kaepernick “extremely talented” on Wednesday, but he was also quick to praise Blaine Gabbert.
“Obviously, Kap is an extremely talented football player,” Kelly said, per Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com. “And you need to have a good quarterback to win. But I was also impressed in the film I watched in terms of how Blaine played this year, also.
“I think statistics bear out that you probably need two good quarterbacks in this league with the injury rate quarterbacks have. I think both of those players make this an attractive situation.”
In other words, Kelly was claiming he cannot go into specifics about who is expected to be the starter or how Kaepernick fits into his offensive system. That simply isn’t true, since Kaepernick is still under contract.
The 49ers have until April 1 to decide if they want to make Kaepernick’s $11.9 million salary for 2016 fully guaranteed or release him. That deadline comes four days before the date Kelly was referring to for when coaches can talk to players about football.
Reports have indicated that Kelly is very high on Kaepernick, so perhaps he is just playing coy. Not only that, but the 49ers supposedly chose Kelly over another very high-profile coach because Kelly wants to work with Kaepernick. Something doesn’t add up, but there’s a legitimate chance Kelly is just playing mind games.
