SANTA CLARA, Calif. – There was a time a little over a year ago when San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke wondered when the historic attrition would end. The days when the long-term franchise design became a heavy bag and the celebratory back-patting transitioned into kidney punching.

“It felt like Muhammad Ali in the ‘Thrilla In Manila,'” Baalke said last week. “Every time I came off the ropes, something else happened.”

“Something else” is the most generic reference possible for one of the worst offseasons in NFL history. One where the fallout from the Jim Harbaugh divorce reached almost biblical fervor. Where Justin Smith, Patrick Willis and Chris Borland retired; and Anthony Davis took a one-year hiatus. Where Aldon Smith rendered himself radioactive and key free agents cashed in elsewhere. And the morale? Well, it wasn’t a Siberian labor camp. There was always that to fall back on.

A little over a year later, Baalke still has only one pragmatic gear when it comes to all of this.

View photos Blaine Gabbert (L) is the frontrunner to win the starting QB job in San Francisco against Colin Kaepernick. (AP) More

“You deal with it,” he said. “Through the process you learn. You try to make adjustments so it doesn’t happen again. But some things are just unpredictable.”

Here’s what is predictable about the 49ers right now: they are in a rebuild.

Baalke isn’t a big fan of that term, of course. Nor is the coaching staff or roster. But there’s a simple deduction in the NFL that goes something like this: if a team is still working a basic staple like starting quarterback and measuring significant pieces of the offensive and defensive lines, then it’s likely in some early stage of a rebuild.

San Francisco is there. And this is going to require some endurance from everyone involved.

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Baalke has plenty of that – even if the fan base and media don’t. He says things like “Winning in March doesn’t matter” and “I’ve got great patience.” He makes sure to say he doesn’t care what anyone thinks about him or his job security. Most of all, he talks about constructing with draft picks as if it would someday be etched on his tombstone: Here lies Trent Baalke. He built through the draft.

Build with draft picks, spend ample salary cap space extending players in the fold. That’s where this is headed again. And yes, it might take some time.

“That’s historically what wins,” Baalke said. “It’s tough to buy championships in any sport [but] it’s damn near impossible in the National Football League. … We absolutely have a young core group of guys that are going to move into their second contracts here. And I think people will see that this year as it unfolds. The Aaron Lynchs. The Jimmie Wards. The Carlos Hydes. They’re good football players and they’re only going to get better.”

All of that is great, of course – not having a roster totally devoid of talent. But there is also a pressing reality that some fundamental building blocks are still unknown. For now, it’s simplest to stick with the quarterback. All offseason and through Sunday’s preseason opener against the Houston Texans, the discussion has been about Blaine Gabbert and Colin Kaepernick. This one feels transparent at this stage. Gabbert has gotten no shortage of positive reviews from head coach Chip Kelly at this point. And there is no indication that any of the lingering questions about Kaepernick – leadership, accuracy, health – have been definitively answered. It seems Gabbert would have to crater to lose his sizable lead on the starting nod.

That’s not to suggest Gabbert doesn’t have concerns. He simply has less right now. He looked like a work in progress against the Texans, throwing a touchdown but completing only four of 10 passes. If we learned anything from Kelly’s time with the Philadelphia Eagles, it’s that a quarterback can’t be inaccurate in his offense. If Gabbert can’t be accurate, he won’t last long as a starter.

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