If Alex didn't get injured last year do you think Kap would have still started at some point?
Actually had an argument on twitter about it. I said the switch was gonna happen anyway, the injury just sped it up, but the other dude said that Alex was playing good enough to hold him off for the season.
i honestly think it was only a matter of time for kap unless he just looked like complete trash. remember (or don't, i don't expect everyone to have followed all of our meaningless pre-season stuff) that LAST pre-season there were people calling for tolzien as the backup and kap to be 3rd string! in kaps rookie year, he had some spot mop up duty. he couldn't even hand the ball off correctly. in practice he looked lost. in most of his pre-season games he looked lost. now he flashed a couple times last pre-season.... had an 80 yard read option run against the vikes, had a couple nice TD throws against the chargers in the 4th pre-season game against nobodies, but there was a real sense that he was just never going to work out.
i'm not sure if something clicked or he put in more time or what but at some point i think things changed and this was BEFORE alex got hurt. kap was brought in at random times all the way through the giants game last year and no one could really figure out why. our offense is rolling with alex and then the next series here comes kap. why? well it has never been said by him but i honestly think harbaugh was getting kaps feet wet so at the first available opportunity he could put kap in and not have him be completely clueless.
whether that ultimately helped or not who knows. i don't think harbaugh expected kap to perform like he has. it just doesn't make any sense that it would work out with everything considered. what kap did last year isn't supposed to happen. minimal first team reps with a guy who came from a pistol offense and had no real game experience. you can say harbs is a genius or whatever but there has to be a little luck involved too because he couldn't have known it would work out that way.
initially it was a no-lose situation for harbs: alex can't play cause of a concussion. kap HAS to play. if he sucks dick, boom alex is back the next week and put kap back in the oven to cook some more. but then when alex was cleared harbs just went all in. i was certain that harbs/the staff would manufacture an additional couple weeks of alex "not being cleared" so they could see more of kap but it worked out!