Matt Maiocco of the CSN Bay Area writes that it would be “difficult†for Josh Johnson to beat out Colin Kaepernick for the teams’ backup quarterback position. Maiocco mentions that neither “Kaepernick nor Johnson has the inside track for the backup job,†but believes that Kaepernick will be helped by the fact that he’ll be entering his second season in the teams’ offense scheme. Johnson actually played under Jim Harbaugh years ago while in college together, but there’s really no rush to force him ahead of Kaepernick at this point. The market for his services was limited, so it would make sense for them to keep moving forward with the intentions of turning things over to Kaepernick at some point in the future. Source: NFL Trade Rumors
I think all three of them are in the mix for #1. Alex is the de facto guy for sure but he's not anything special and if Harbaugh likes what he's seeing out of Johnson or Kaep more than Smith, I doubt he'd hesitate to give either of them the nod. Both of those guys have a way higher ceiling than Alex and potentially offer a lot more from the position. Kaepernick wasn't drafted where he was to not take the job as soon as he's ready which hopefully is soon. I'm fine with Alex as the starter for now, he's clearly good enough to get the job done, but at the same time I'm eager to get someone better in there and see what Harbaugh/Roman can really do offensively when they're not crippled by the qb's ability or lack thereof.
