Source: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/how-we...

A healthy Vernon Davis would go a long way for Kaepernick, but even with his tight end back, San Francisco still needs another element on the outside. Putting together a receiving corps with a more diverse set of strengths would be one of the first steps in determining Kaepernick’s future. With the amount of talent the Niners are bringing back defensively, rolling with Kaepernick this season is the shrewd choice. Depending on how the season plays out, next offseason is when Baalke will have a decision to make. Kaepernick’s cap figure next year is about $16.8 million, and the Niners could save about $9.4 million on their 2016 cap by letting him go.

If San Francisco takes a nosedive this season, next spring would be a perfect time to hit the reset button all over its roster. Virtually all of Willis’s $9.6 million is non-guaranteed, and both Aldon Smith and Vernon Davis will be free agents. In an ideal world for Baalke, Smith returns to his 2012 self, Willis and Bowman come back healthy, the offensive line and running game come back to form, and this season just becomes the next one in the plan the front office started to lay out five years ago. On the other hand, it’s not hard to imagine a year in which it all goes the other way. Either way, what happens in 2015 will define how we view the Niners’ decision to live in a world without Jim Harbaugh.