San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh wants to ensure that mobile quarterback Colin Kaepernick isn't blatantly targeted Sunday by the Green Bay Packers, so he has gone to the NFL for clarity about when Kaepernick is supposed to be safe before he's declared a runner.

Kaepernick ran the read-option to near perfection on a big stage against Green Bay in the NFC divisional round in January. By league rule, a quarterback in that scheme isn't as protected as his peers once he leaves the pocket and it's clear he's running.

"You're hearing a lot of tough talk right now. You're hearing some intimidating type of talk, the same thing we were hearing a couple years ago," Harbaugh said Wednesday. "It sounds a lot like targeting a specific player. You definitely start to wonder.

"A man will usually tell you his bad intentions if you just listen. You know what's being said publicly, not what's being said privately. You hope that their intent isn't going to be anything that's not within the rules."

In the NFL's weekly rules video that was sent to reporters on Thursday, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino showed several read-option plays and spelled out when a quarterback who is in the act of running the read-option can be hit.

"The quarterback can be hit like a runner until he's clearly out of the play," Blandino said in the video.

Blandino noted that if a quarterback is carrying out an option fake, normal unnecessary roughness rules apply. But once the quarterback hands the ball off on an option play, he is protected and cannot be unnecessarily contacted if he is backing up, fading backward or standing still.

On Tuesday, Packers outside linebacker Clay Matthews told ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" that perhaps the best way to slow read-option quarterbacks like Kaepernick is to hit them.