The San Francisco 49ers are reportedly benching struggling quarterback Colin Kaepernick in favor of former first-round bust Blaine Gabbert.
Kyle McLorg of Bay Area Sports Guy was the first to report the news with respected national writers falling in line to confirm the news.
It's yet another black eye for an organization that has gone from Super Bowl contention to the bottom rung of the NFL in the matter of just over a year.
Kaepernick, 27, has struggled a great deal behind an atrocious offensive line and questionable coaching scheme. He's thrown a total of six touchdowns in eight games and has led the league's worst scoring offense. Though, the embattled signal caller has also been sacked 28 times and pressured on 40 percent of his drop backs this season.
The starting right side of San Francisco's offensive line of Erik Pears (RT) and Jordan Devey (RG) is the worst in the NFL — something that has added to Kaepernick's struggles.
To suggest that this unit will somehow improve under a less mobile quarterback that has nowhere near the track record of success as Kaepernick is foolish. There's a reason the Jacksonville Jaguars gave up on him after two seasons.
Moving forward this year, San Francisco is just playing out the stretch. It's 2-6 on the season and has lost six of its past seven games after an opening week win over the Minnesota Vikings.
As it relates to Kaepernick's future in San Francisco, that appears to be up in the air. His benching could have had a lot to do with the remainder of his deal being guaranteed for injury only. Behind a horrible offensive line, San Francisco likely didn't want to risk guaranteeing Kaepernick a ton of money if he were injured.