Former San Francisco 49ers and Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana recently did an interview with Sports Illustrated centered around his thoughts on Colin Kaepernick and the 49ers’ quarterback situation. He didn’t hold back in his criticism of the sixth-year quarterback.
“Well, (the quarterback) is usually the leader of the team in most cases. And people look to (Kaepernick) at this point, and he’s a quiet person. You know, he doesn’t share a lot, he doesn’t talk to a lot of the guys,” Montana said. “And that’s difficult for an offense to operate because the communication between the quarterback and the receiver is one of the most important things.”
Montana also touched on the problems that could be caused by the 49ers’ inability to work out a trade after Kaepernick requested one earlier in the offseason.
“…when you have a guy who doesn’t really want to be there, you don’t know whether to put yourself behind him or not. And you want to believe in him, but if he doesn’t want to be there then — I’m sure they did everything they could to try and get him to some place he’d be happy because it would be best for both teams.”
This isn’t the first time that the issues between Kaepernick and his teammates have been brought up. Last season, there were reports that Kaepernick’s “confidence was shot” and he was “alone on an island” in the locker room. That’s unacceptable for a quarterback in order to be successful, and it kind of proves how much his teammates trust and believe in him.
As for the trade, the 49ers had a deal in place to trade Kaepernick to the Denver Broncos earlier this offseason, but he refused to take a pay cut. Now it seems that the Niners are set to go into the season with the struggling quarterback on their roster, and it remains to be seen how that will affect the morale of the team.