Jim Tomsula believes benching Colin Kaepernick for the San Francisco 49ers' Week 9 game against the Atlanta Falcons will benefit him.

"This was just a decision that I just felt like I wanted Colin to step back and breathe," Tomsula said. "Look at things through a different lens. Keep preparing, keep doing his thing, keep working, but just step back and take a look at things, OK.

"That's what I want."

Kaepernick is going through a career-worst season in Total QBR (47.6), yards per attempt (6.7), TD-INT ratio (1.2) and completion percentage (59.3). 

"It was a tough decision," Tomsula said. "All those decisions are tough, but I felt that was the direction we needed to go. Watching, feeling where I'm at, I just decided now is the time.

"In no way is 2-6 all on Colin Kaepernick; that's all of us ... this is a guy I care about a lot. This is a guy that I respect a lot. This is a guy that I think has talent. It's just me, what I'm watching, what I'm feeling, and I want him to just step back, keep working, let's do our thing and move forward."