The 49ers are banking a lot on Colin Kaepernick being the quarterback who will get them over the hump.
The team signed the quarterback to a six-year extension reportedly worth $126 million and $61 million guaranteed, the most guaranteed money for an NFL player ever.
Kaepernick, who took over for an injured Alex Smith in November 2012 and won seven of nine games (including playoffs) before the 49ers came up just yards shy of a Super Bowl win against the Ravens, was set to earn just under just over $1 million this season.
Last year, in his first full season as a starter, Kaepernick completed 58.4 percent of his passes for 3,197 yards, throwing 21 touchdowns against eight interceptions.
Kaepernick raised his game in the playoffs, leading the 49ers to road victories in frigid Green Bay and in Carolina before coming up just short yet again. He threw an end-zone interception at the end of the NFC Championship game in Seattle — the pick that spawned Richard Sherman’s infamous rant to FOX reporter Erin Andrews.
The announcement of the extension comes during a tumultuous offseason for Kaepernick, who was part of an investigation of a possible sexual assault in Miami in April.
According to an information report from Miami police, a woman — with whom Kaepernick had a prior sexual history — claimed that he kissed and undressed her at the apartment of Seahawks receiver Ricardo Lockette. She said Kaepernick left the room and did not have sex with her, but she later woke up in a hospital bed with no memory of later events.