The 49ers have benched Colin Kaepernick - and it looks like he's done in San Francisco
Niners head coach Jim Tomsula said earlier on Monday that he was "evaluating everything."
Later in the day, Schefter reported that San Francisco had traded veteran tight end Vernon Davis to the Denver Broncos for a 2016 7th-round draft pick and 6th round picks in 2016 and 2017.
Kaepernick, who led the 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012 and the NFC Championship Game in 2013, is having the worst season of his career. He's thrown 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and his passer rating of 78.1 is 28th in the league, per Pro Football Reference.
According to a Fox Sports report, the 27-year-old quarterback has been "on an island" in the locker room, and recently stopped wearing his iconic Beats headphones in order to try to engage with teammates more.
Considering the timing of the team's decision to bench him, it looks like he might not even be in San Francisco too much longer. As Pro Football Talk notes, the 49ers are one week away from their bye, which suggests that the team is actively shopping him and hoping to offload his massive contract somewhere else before the trade deadline expires at the end of the day Tuesday.
From Mike Florio:
The decision to send him to the bench likely means the 49ers are done with Kaepernick, and that he'll be traded or cut before April 1, when his 2016 base salary becomes fully guaranteed. If that's the case, and given that he has more than $31 million guaranteed for injury from 2016 through 2018, the decision to bench Kaepernick could represent a decision to put him in bubble wrap for the balance of the season.