As you'll recall, the 49ers drafted Colin Kaepernick in the late afternoon of April 29, hours after the window in which NFL coaches could meet with players and distribute playbooks had closed and the lockout had resumed. Kaepernick, however, said he not only has a playbook, after studying it he doesn't foresee the NFL learning curve as all too daunting. The quarterback told the Petros & Money radio show in Los Angeles that he received a copy of the playbook from a 49ers teammate.
"It's not going to be that big of a change, actually," he said. "I've been going through the playbook. I have one now, got it from a teammate. Going through the playbook, a lot of the route combinations and things like that are very similar. They're just called something different. Or they might run it out of a play action where we (Nevada) ran it out of a drop back. But for the most part, it's just re-learning terms and things like that."
Kaepernick has been in the Los Angeles area the last few days as part of the NFL's rookie premiere. He and fourth-round pick Kendall Hunter are the 49ers representatives there. It's notable that none of the photographs taken at the event show Kaepernick with crutches. While that doesn't give any clues to the nature of his recent surgical procedure - I was told it was to his lower left leg - it does shed some light on the severity or lack thereof.
Other items from the radio interview:
* Kaepernick said he's been in touch with several teammates, including tight end Vernon Davis. "He has me more excited than I already was about playing," Kaepernick said.
* He said he was surprised the 49ers dialed his number on April 29. While he had an excellent workout on March 18 in Reno with Jim Harbaugh, Kaepernick said he didn't hear a peep from the team since then. "After my workout with them, they never really said anything to me after that," he said. "So I was a little bit surprised how interested they were." They call that playing coy ... and not tipping your hand to your competitors.
-- Matt Barrows
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