Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
The San Francisco 49ers did not communicate well with quarterback Seneca Wallace, which could hurt the team as early as Week 1. After Wallace parted ways with San Francisco after he felt he was screwed over by the team, he signed with the Green Bay Packers. The Packers just happen to play the 49ers in the first week of the regular season.
According to Wallace, San Francisco used one of the oldest tactics in the book to get the best of him and fellow quarterback Colt McCoy.
“I’ve been around this game long enough where I can see what’s going on,” Wallace recently told the Des Moines Register, “and I realized right away the reason they brought me here was to get Colt to take a pay cut.”
The 49ers signed Wallace to force McCoy to take a cut in pay that saw his salary drop from a respectable $1.5 million to the league minimum of $630,000 in 2013. As if the miscommunication could not get any worse, head coach Jim Harbaugh thought Wallace leaving the team meant that he was retiring.
How could this affect the 49ers? For starters, San Francisco will take on Green Bay in a rematch of last season’s NFC Divisional Playoffs that saw the 49ers run all over the Packers. Even though Wallace was only with the team for approximately two weeks, he still sat in the quarterback room that entire time. That means he could provide Green Bay with some valuable inside information.
More importantly, San Francisco will miss out on an opportunity to have a veteran quarterback backup starter Colin Kaepernick. Wallace could have used his experience to help Kaepernick see certain looks that the youngster may have missed while under center. Instead, the 49ers will use McCoy as their backup, and many fans will most likely agree that just is not the same.
Some people believe that the veteran backup quarterback is overrated. However, if Aaron Rodgers, the best signal caller in the NFL, is excited about Wallace giving him input during games, why wouldn’t Kaepernick want that?
The departure of Wallace could turn out to be nothing more than something for the media to discuss this week. On the other hand, it could turn into a big problem for the 49ers.
