The San Francisco 49ers have had some struggles on offense this season. On one drive the offense will be clicking on all cylinders and the very next drive they will look completely inept. But who’s fault is their inconsistency and periodical ineptitude? Some will tell you the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of quarterback Colin Kaepernick. As it goes with all teams in the NFL though, the quarterback always gets too much blame when the offense is performing poorly and they’ll usually get too much credit when the offense is performing well.

The narrative on Kaepernick since he took over as the starter midway through the 2012 season has been that he doesn’t go through his progressions. This year a lot of critics are still saying that he only looks at the first read in the progression and will use his legs if that receiver is covered. Well, that just isn’t the case this year. Kaepernick has improved significantly in this regard. If you put on the tape from any 49ers game so far this season, you’ll see Kaepernick go through his progressions on a regular basis. If you turn on the film from 2012 and 2013, you will be hard pressed to find such instances. This year you can find it multiple times each game.

Another critique I keep hearing more and more of is that he throws the ball too hard. There are certain types of passes that require a certain amount of “touch” to be put on the ball to float it over top of the receiver. Kaepernick is able to make those throws and has many times this season alone. But those aren’t even the times his critics bring this up. It’s usually brought up when a receiver drops a pass. The ball will hit the receiver right in the hands, they’ll drop it, and the blame is on Kaepernick because… he threw it too hard? These are professional wide receivers we’re talking about, they’re paid to catch footballs. To blame a dropped pass that hits the receiver on the hands on the quarterback and the speed at which he threw the ball is absurd.

One of the most puzzling things about Kaepernick is that every game he’ll have a pass or two that will leave you wondering what he was thinking. Every quarterback has those throws from time to time, even guys like Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. But with Kaepernick he’ll have one or two just about every game that’ll leave you scratching your head. Sometimes these passes will end in an interception and sometimes it’ll just be an incomplete pass, but it’s something he needs to work on moving forward.

Another skill he could improve upon is throwing receivers open. In the NFL there is a very fine line between an open receiver and a covered receiver. The right ball placement from the quarterback can be the difference. As quarterbacks develop their skills and vision and get a more thorough understanding of the defenses they’re facing, they’re able to better anticipate what a certain player in a certain defense is going to do. This is information that a quarterback needs to process in a split second to throw someone open and these are the things Kaepernick needs to improve upon as he continues to develop more and more as a quarterback. If he can hone this skill and get it to a level along with some of the other top quarterbacks in the league, Kaepernick could very well become the hardest quarterback to defend against.

While Kaepernick has some deficiencies that need to be corrected for this offense to reach it’s full potential, he is certainly not the only thing in need of improvement in the 49ers’ offense. For starters, their offensive line has been dealing with a lot of injuries and switching people around. Right guard Alex Boone missed most of the first game because he missed pretty much the whole offseason holding out for a new contract. And since his return he hasn’t played well at all earning himself a PFF (subscription) grade of -4.8 entering Week 11. Right tackle Anthony Davis has also missed significant time due to injury. Like Boone, Davis hasn’t played well either earning a PFF grade of -7.1. The season started with Daniel Kilgore at center but, due to a season ending injury to Kilgore, now it is rookie Marcus Martin starting at center. With all of these injuries on the offensive line, it has caused a lot of shuffling of starters from position to position and even the backups have had to be moved to positions they normally don’t play. If you look at any quarterback in the league, their play noticeably declines when you start shuffling the offensive line around and guys start getting injured. This is an aspect a lot of people don’t talk about with the 49ers this season.

Another aspect that could be negatively affecting the 49ers’ offense is the coaching. According to pro sports bettor David Malinsky, San Francisco’s in-game coaching is the worst in the NFL. From the outside looking in there is no way to tell exactly who this falls on, whether it’s offensive coordinator Greg Roman or head coach Jim Harbaugh, but no matter what it ultimately falls on the head coach. The play calling has been extremely puzzling in some games and the offense seems to be going through somewhat of an identity crisis. It is an offense that is build around Frank Gore and running the ball effectively. However, there are some games where it seems like Roman is trying his hardest to not get Gore the ball. Whether that is truly Roman’s fault or if it’s actually Harbaugh’s fault, we don’t really know. What we do know is that this offense needs to figure it out quickly if they have any chance of making the playoffs.

So, does Kaepernick get too much blame for the struggles of this offense? Generally speaking, yes he does. Because of Kaepernick’s early success in the league, people seem to forget that he’s still a work in progress. What you see out there every Sunday isn’t the finished project. He’s in his fourth year in the NFL and played in an offense in college that isn’t anything like a pro style offense.

He ran the pistol offense in college and is still learning how to be more of a pocket passer and the nuances of an NFL offense. Something else you won’t hear his critics talking about is that out of qualifying quarterbacks he has the fourth highest PFF quarterback rating. The only three quarterbacks with a higher rating are Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Peyton Manning. Taking away spikes, dropped passes, and throw aways he has the seventh highest accuracy percentage in the NFL. Kaepernick is a very good quarterback in need of some improvements, but he’s not the reason this offense goes through spurts of ineptitude.