Blaine Gabbert took ownership of the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback job long before Chip Kelly’s official blessing last weekend.
It could trace back to November, when Gabbert replaced Colin Kaepernick at midseason. Or perhaps it was the offseason program, when Gabbert took first-team snaps and Kaepernick could only shadow him because of health constraints.
Gabbert’s “starter” status became as clear as the sunny day that dawned Aug. 12, during a joint practice with the Houston Texans, before he even started the first three exhibitions.
“If you want to be the guy, then you’ve got to act like the guy,” tight end Garrett Celek said.
Gabbert did exactly that at the 49ers-Texans practice. After engineering a touchdown drive in Kelly’s fast-break offense, he reached the sideline and displayed QB1 leadership.
First, he chatted up left tackle Joe Staley and center Daniel Kilgore. Then came a high-five with star rusher Carlos Hyde and a compliment to Shaun Draughn. When Bruce Ellington walked up to ask a question, Gabbert put his arm around him and rehashed a pass route, which lured Torrey Smith, this year’s No. 1 receiver, into the conversation.
“I viewed it as I was the quarterback of this football team, and that’s how you always have to approach day-in and day-out walking into this building,” Gabbert said. “… I just took it and ran with it. And here I am.”
Monday night against the Los Angeles Rams, Gabbert is in a season-opening lineup for the first time since 2013. He made only three starts that year to cap a truncated tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who drafted him 10th overall with their 2011 first-round pick.
As bad of a first impression he made in the NFL (5-22 as the Jaguars starter), Gabbert looks convinced he’s on the verge of a vibrant, second life with the 49ers under new coach Chip Kelly.
“He really, really, really likes the team,” Chuck Gabbert, Blaine’s father, said by phone from the family home in Ballwin, Missouri. “He enjoys the guys.”
These guys? This youth-oriented, mostly unproven roster that’s made the 49ers the longest of NFL long shots? A team that recently traded for two new wide receivers on the doorstep of Kelly’s first season — and perhaps Gabbert’s last here as he enters the final season of a modest, two-year contract?
“The 49ers organization gave Blaine a chance,” Chuck Gabbert added. “I don’t think he ever doubted his ability.”
Former 49ers quarterback Steve Young, who’ll call ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast, optimistically thinks Gabbert can reboot his career here and now.
“People know this is a tough spot, and last year was a tough spot and he got some things done,” Young said. “His career was headed out the door. He reclaimed an opportunity to play football, and this year he might solidify it. I want to see him do things that are hard.”
Running Kelly’s up-tempo offense won’t be easy, and Gabbert’s decision-making and accuracy must be pure. Kelly hasn’t voiced a single concern, even if he publicly kept open the competition with Kaepernick to give the deposed starter a fair shot until his health cooperated, which ultimately came too late.
“He obviously has the athleticism and the skillset to be a quarterback,” Kelly said of Gabbert. “But you continue to see on a daily basis how much film he studies, how much time he’s in this building, how much work he does on his craft.
“So, it’s a lot of fun to watch a guy that spends that much time trying to make himself better get the opportunity that he’s earned on Monday night.”
Gabbert’s mobility means Kelly won’t have to pull him for a Kaepernick cameo in a run-oriented package. But Gabbert’s passing was maddening at times last season, especially on third downs which typically were doomed by a preceding negative play on every series (see: penalty, sack, tackle for loss).
He won this offseason, though, and “that’s not a bad thing,” said Young, who now wants Gabbert to show more “grit and guile.”
For the past 10 months, Gabbert sure acted as a starting QB.
“Sitting in the film room with him this offseason, just he and I working through the new system and the calls, that’s stuff that leaders do,” Kilgore said. “They pull you to the side and want to spend one-on-one time.
“The film room, that’s a great example of him taking ownership of the starting role.”
Full disclosure: Kilgore is biased. He’s become close friends with Gabbert, an ideal scenario for any team when the center and quarterback bond like this. That friendship didn’t just stem from their post-lunch, hour-long film sessions during the offseason. It extends off the field.
“You build relationships with guys. They come to respect you,” Gabbert said. “But, that doesn’t come overnight. … A lot of my best friends are in that locker room. I value those relationships and I think they do as well.”
Gabbert frequently hosts Kilgore and other teammates for barbecues at his home near the 49ers facility. It’s not a bad way to keep company while Gabbert’s long-time girlfriend lives and works in Kansas City.
“Blaine, not to toot his horn, but he can cook a pretty good steak,” Kilgore said. “So if it’s a free dinner, heck, why not? Filet, rib-eye, skirt steak, whatever, he’s a pretty good cook. He fixed salmon the other night. He does pretty good.
“He uses a Green Egg,” Kilgore added. “Don’t get him started or you won’t finish your interview about the Green Egg.”
Chuck Gabbert dubbed his two oldest sons “grill masters,” as both Blaine and Tyler were taught to man a grill before they left to play college ball at Missouri. (Tyler eventually transferred to Central Florida; youngest brother Brett is a sophomore quarterback on Christian Brothers’ varsity in St. Louis.)
Upon leaving Missouri after his junior season, Gabbert headed to Arizona for pre-draft workouts, and among those he joined was Christian Ponder, who’s now the 49ers No. 3 QB.
“He does a great job of trying to connect with everybody,” Ponder said of Gabbert. “You can tell he’s trying to take that leadership role. He’s natural at it.”
“I’m sure if you talk to anyone on the Jaguars his rookie season, I’m sure he’s different,” Ponder added. “Everyone grows as you get more comfortable in this role.”
You also develop habits. Gabbert apparently loves to make the “OK” sign with his thumb and index finger.
“When he gets really excited, he starts doing it,” Celek said. “I feel like he’s telling a story or, ‘Hey, get across the field and I’ll get you the ball.’ He does it all the time and we always give him crap for it. It’s funny.”
With the media, Gabbert is a cliché champion, rarely straying from the pro-athlete handbook to divulge comical anecdotes. He’s not rude. He just stays on script.
“He takes it very serious,” Chuck Gabbert said, “because he knows there are not many people in this world that have that opportunity.”
Kaepernick had it for three years. Gabbert sat behind him throughout 2014 after a March trade (for a sixth-round pick). If there’s animosity between them, it’s not visible at practice or in games, nor when they sit next to each other at their lockers sharing laughs and reviewing plays.
Wins could be scarce as the 49ers rebuild. Can Gabbert persevere and lead an underdog campaign? He may have lost five starts last season, but his three wins hint that more are possible.
“He got grittier last year and I liked that,” Young said. “To make a career here, which he has the opportunity to do, he needs the grittiness to say, ‘Yeah, a lot of it is new, but it’s not an excuse and I’m going to get it done.’”
“When he came into the NFL, he was young, very young,” Chuck Gabbert said. “But he’s realized there’s a way you go about your business. If you stay focused and consistent, ultimately you will have opportunity.”
Perhaps never has a 49ers quarterback competition flown so under the radar upon its completion. But never has any NFL player seized the spotlight through a national-anthem protest. Gabbert isn’t complaining.
“There’s a national story going on that, of course, warrants a lot of coverage,” Chuck Gabbert added. “Blaine would rather go incognito, fly under the radar and just go out and beat the Los Angeles Rams.”
Last season finished with Gabbert and the 49ers beating the Rams at Levi’s Stadium. Doing the same in Monday night’s encore might convince others beyond the 49ers’ walls in Gabbert’s capabilities.
