Jim Harbaugh may have drafted him and inserted him into the starting lineup but that doesn't mean that the former San Francisco 49ers coach made Colin Kaepernick a better quarterback.
So says ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The fourth-year 49ers quarterback and three-year starter posted a photo of him with Harbaugh and included a caption thanking the coach for his role in Kaepernick's rise to the starting quarterback spot that happened in the middle of the 2012 season.
"The coach that drafted me, chose to start me, and stood behind me through it all!" Kaepernick wrote on his Instagram account, according to SI.com. "I will never forget what you have done for me coach thank you for everything!"
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Neither will Dilfer, who wasn't quite as forward with the praise for Harbaugh, who accepted the Michigan Wolverines head coaching position on Tuesday.
"(Harbaugh) got a lot of credit for developing the quarterbacks, both Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick," Dilfer said on 95.7 The Game, according to the publication. "But if you really look at their body of work at the end, they never got better in the critical areas of quarterbacking.
"... Don't judge them by the stats, judge them by third-down efficiency, red zone productivity, end of halves, end of games - critical moments when quarterbacking becomes graduate level. And both Alex and Colin did not perform their best in those moments."
The Mercury-News went on to report that Kaepernick ranked 39th in 2014 among quarterbacks with a fourth quarter passer rating of 60.3. He went the entire season without throwing a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
Harbaugh's former boss said the coach did a good job with the quarterbacks during his time with the 49ers.
"Jim was great with our quarterbacks. He did a lot of great things from a teaching standpoint," 49ers CEO Jed York said. "(In 2011), we wanted somebody who could help get or quarterback and get our offense straight. Jim did a really good job of that."
The 49ers hope their next coach has a knack for shaping quarterbacks.
Do you think Jim Harbaugh did a good job of developing San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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