Brent Jones, the often colorful former 49ers tight end, joined Tolbert and Lund on Monday to recap San Francisco’s 45-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
While critical of the entire team and saying that the cupboard is barren of talent, Jones was particularly cynical about Colin Kaepernick’s performance, even poking fun of his national anthem stance.
“I got to tell you, there was five or six throws yesterday where I took a knee in protest,” Jones jested. “Those are horrific throws for the NFL, or college.”
Kaepernick completed 13 of his 29 passes for 187 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. The quarterback was clinging onto a 17-13 lead late in the third quarter despite no running game or defense to help him.
“I actually heard yesterday people try and say Kap was decent, and I’m like compared to what?” Jones said. “Are you kidding? Have our expectations sunk so drastically low that you could say that?
“You have to be able to make throws. You don’t get 20 chances a game to throw a touchdown pass. And Kap missed a couple yesterday. Torrey Smith on a post route, he zinged it five yards over his head. Poor Torrey Smith. That poor guy must be thinking, are you kidding me? How many times have I been open for touchdowns down the field and none of my quarterbacks can even get the ball within range.”
Later in the interview, Jones wanted to continue the Kaepernick puns and relate them to the defense.
“And I have to say, there were a few times on defense where I took a knee and protested our lack of coverage, or who did we screw up again, or how are guys still wide open?”
Jones added this about Kap’s protest: “There’s been a few people in the league that have questioned this. He’s getting a lot of notoriety on the flag thing. And that’s fine. And we’ve talked about this and I don’t want to get into it, but I want to know you are passionate and committing 100 percent of your time to being the best. Your spending time watching film, reading defenses. If you are going to get your chance to go in there. In my gut, I believe that it was the right move. Gabbert wasn’t getting it done. He just wasn’t. Did I think Kap was going to be able to? No. But it didn’t matter. Because we were going to have to change anyway…”