The comparison isn't quite accurate between the lame-duck seasons of Jim Harbaugh and Colin Kaepernick with the San Francisco 49ers.
Harbaugh never signed a contract; Kaepernick signed an extraordinarily bad one for himself.
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The San Jose Mercury News reported that the 49ers appear headed for round two of an uncomfortable season with one of their icons from the 2012 Super Bowl season.
Kaepernick, the mercurial starting quarterback whose play has gotten progressively worse in each of the three seasons that he's been the team's starting quarterback, enters 2015 basically with a one-year contract.
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The 49ers and Kaepernick agreed to a seven-year, $126 million deal last summer that ended up being only $13 million in guaranteed money for the University of Nevada alum.
The team retains the right after each season to release Kaepernick, and as long as it's done before April 1, not owe him a single penny.
That puts Kaepernick in a year-to-year lease - much like the St. Louis Rams, but also like his former head coach who bolted to Michigan at the end of last season.
"Which is sort of a franchise specialty these days-management and Harbaugh went through an accelerated lame-duck coaching crisis in 2014 due to Harbaugh's contract status and now Kaepernick's non-guaranteed contract is the 49ers' next ticking time bomb," Mercury-News columnist Tim Kawakami wrote. "Can't you see it coming?"
The 49ers already are off the hook for $2 million of Kaepernick's $12.4 million salary next season because he didn't satisfy two of the three requirements in his contract to retain that $2 million caveat (the three criteria: he has to take 80 percent of the team's snaps that season, lead his team to the Super Bowl or earn first- or second-team All-Pro honors).
Kaepernick was betting on himself, which was an admirable but at the same time foolish thing to do. Or he may have been betting on Harbaugh to work his magic and keep getting Super Bowl appearances. But with the Seattle Seahawks at their peak, that logic was faulty as well.
Now, Kaepernick enters 2015 with an altered coaching staff as defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was promoted to head coach and Geep Chryst was promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.
That might seem like good news to Kaepernick, but he has regressed the past two seasons. He is spending his offseason learning to become a pocket-passer from Kurt Warner and others, but early indications are that the 49ers want him to return to his running ways.
If Kaepernick struggles, reports of his exit could increase as the season goes along and be the same distraction it was for the team with Harbaugh's status in 2014.
Which could lead the 49ers to their second messy divorce in two years.
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