Quote:The reason is simple, a fresh (unbiased) set of eyes. There's no doubt that David Caldwell has done a good job in bringing in talent, however, if he's "missed" on his most important draft pick in Blake Bortles, will he be able to swallow his pride, admit the mistake and move on in a timely fashion? This is a situation that doesn't get talked about enough, and I think it's the most crucial. We all would like to believe that Blake will shore up his mechanics, improve his accuracy, ball placement, and decision making, but what if he doesn't? It'd be borderline-insane to commit (long term) to a guy with so many fundamental flaws, as a huge Bortles fan this hurts to think about, but we have to be realistic and honest in our assessments if we ever wish to get over the proverbial "hump" as a franchise.

 

This situation is similar to the Gene Smith/Blaine Gabbert conundrum just a few years ago, I'm not trying to compare Smith to Caldwell or Gabbert to Bortles, it's obvious that Caldwell/Bortles are better, but the situation(s) are similar. Gene Smith forced his "handpicked" QB onto Mike Mularkery (there's no doubt the job wasn't as attractive because of the QB situation which likely limited the coaching pool), it turned out Gabbert wasn't the guy which ultimately cost Mularkey his job, my question is, how many coaches will be willing to attach their wagons to the Blake Bortles train? It reminds me of a comment Daniel Jeremiah (a guy I respect because he's well connected) made in the off-season, I'm paraphrasing here but was along the lines of "people around the league aren't as high on Bortles as fans/fantasy community", at the time I adamantly disagreed but what if he's right?

 

Blake's play so far this year hasn't exactly inspired confidence, if Blake continues to play this bad, it would be a disservice to the organization and the fans to not go into this off-season with an unbiased set of eyes, I'd like to believe David will be able to swallow his pride/ego, but history tells us GM's rarely do that. If Shad decides to keep David (this is the likely scenario), then it's incumbent upon Shad to make sure that David is looking at this situation with unbiased eyes. If Blake isn't the guy long-term, I don't think this organization is in a position to delay the inevitable. The best case scenario of course is Blake dispelling this situation by playing lights out the next 13 games, I have my doubts there. The absolute worst case scenario is Blake continues to play like crap, David forces "his" QB onto the next head-coach, Blake isn't the guy long term which results in David and our next head coach both getting the axe from Shad in 2017/2018, which has a variety of different consequences with one of them being (potentially) missing out on another QB in free agency (a Jimmy Garoppolo/Josh McDaniels pairing comes to mind) or in the draft. Blake needs to play better and play better NOW because a lot is on the line not only in the interim, but long-term as well.

 

You can be a decent general manager and find your Quarterback but miss out in the coaching department. A few examples would be Atlanta with Matt Ryan and Alex Smith during his time in San Francisco. Again, you'd think the way this kid is getting his teeth kicked in by these armchair talent scouts that he's been our Quarterback longer than Byron Leftwich or has the pocket awareness of Blaine Gabbert and the courage of a cowardly Lion. He's just now coming off his 32nd career start in year three under two different offensive coordinators. I'd like to hope and think that Khan learned from Weaver's mistakes with Gene Smith and the Jack Del Rio / Mike Mularkey debacle. Caldwell needs to remain intact. And he needs to hire a coaching staff who can work with Bortles and correct the running game and overall offensive lineman play. This is why I keep saying we need a coach like Jim Harbaugh. Someone who has shown he can win with two different Quarterbacks during his tenure with the 49ers. I just don't know any other coach out there that's capable of that. 

 

Now, what Caldwell could do. And I think it's a valid and viable option. In 2017 going into training camp with a new coaching staff. I think you give that staff the benefit of the doubt and you tell them. "Look, I really want you to give my guy a shot first, but, I will look into investing either a decent amount of cap space in a possible replacement through free agency or at least invest a 2ND or 3RD selection on a guy that could challenge him this year and into 2018 if needed". I think that's very fair. And I also think it's the safest route to take. It's panned out for teams like Philadelphia and Washington. You're seeing it now pay off for other teams like Dallas and New England. There's nothing wrong with investing a high end selection on a back-up QB with the potential to take the spotlight over or flip him to another football team that's desperate down the road. 

 

But before all of that. I want to see this running game improve. And I want to see the blocking improve up front before we completely abandon and give up on Bortles like we did with Gabbert. I don't get that same feeling of despair with Caldwell and Bortles like I did with Smith and Gabbert. Two completely different circumstances. 

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