Blaine Gabbert earns another start for San Francisco 49ers

A 76.2 rating was enough for Blaine Gabbert to earn another start for the San Franscisco 49ers. Such is the state of the 49ers these days.

After hesitating initially on who would start the 49ers’ next game, coach Jim Tomsula announced that it would be Gabbert for a second straight week. Colin Kaepernick will back him up again.

Gabbert wasn’t great, but he made a few plays running the ball and threw for a couple touchdowns in a 17-16 win against the reeling Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Gabbert brought a basic competence to the San Francisco offense that has been lacking most of this season. In three of Kaepernick’s last five starts the 49ers failed to score more than seven points.

“He had a nice day on third down,” Tomsula said of Gabbert’s performance, according to 49ers.com. “Very confident, (and he) knew where he wanted to go, and what he wanted to do. He put the ball where it needed to go on the field; the distribution of the ball was good.”

The big picture story with the 49ers’ quarterback situation is Kaepernick and what his future with the team is. But it’s also a nice story for Gabbert.

Gabbert washed out as a first-round pick with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and has been a punch line for a while because of his poor play there. There were even jokes when the 49ers gave up just a sixth-round pick for Gabbert in a trade with the Jaguars last year. For Gabbert to re-emerge as a starter, and have enough success in his first start that he’ll get another, seemed unlikely even a few weeks ago.

Who knows how many starts Gabbert has left with the 49ers, who might want to give Kaepernick another chance before heading into an interesting offseason. But Gabbert has at least one more coming.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab