While Gabbert and Kaepernick both struggled at Wednesday’s open practice at Kezar Stadium, Gabbert had the upper hand on Friday with multiple completions to Bruce Ellington and a attractive long ball to Dres Anderson for a touchdown. Which makes this week perhaps the most critical of the entire training camp when it comes to figuring out who will be playing the most important position in the game for the Niners in 2016.
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Gabbert overcame a spotty start against the Houston Texans by flashing arm talent and athleticism to new coach Chip Kelly in the Niners’ preseason opener in Santa Clara, Calif.
The 49ers rushed for 161 yards in the first half (236 total), gashing the undermanned Texans front-seven. “But it’s also something where we’re in preseason practice, and we don’t play a (regular-season) game for about another month”. For now, however, it looks like Kelly will roll with Gabbert as his starter – and once again not really have a quarterback. Kaepernick told reporters after Friday’s joint practice with the Texans that he thinks he’ll be able to play Sunday, but his status will be evaluated as the game nears. “That’s why we had planned on actually taking yesterday off”, Kelly said. He was over here early getting rehab. Hopefully we can get him to play on Sunday.
49ers: RT Anthony Davis, who sat out past year in temporary retirement, played with the second string behind Trent Brown in his first game in more than 19 months and was beaten by Eric Lee for a sack late in the first half.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) – Matt Forte made a cameo appearance on the practice field for the New York Jets on Sunday and later got cheered by the fans as he walked past the crowd.
Osweiler was 4-for-7 for 27 yards in three series before exiting in his first action for the Texans after departing the Denver Broncos as a free agent and signing a four-year, $72 million free agent contract. Starting quarterback Blain Gabbert, however, was just 4 of 10 for 63 yards and one touchdown. Kelly wouldn’t say whether or not Kaepernick would run with the first-team offense if healthy.
“It was up and down, both Blaine and our first-team offense”, Kelly said. You want to make sure you get all of your information right before you write the article. Kind of get us on track.
“I think we did a good job of just moving the ball down the field”, Savage said. However, you have to wonder how much the Texans played against an uptempo offense in their training camp.
-KELLY: Just… Colin isn’t 100 percent. “We wanted to go out, kind of set the tone for how the season was going to go”.
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Given that Kaepernick is in the midst of a quarterback battle with teammate Blaine Gabbert, an injury couldn’t come at a worse time for the signal caller.
