Posted on 03/17/2017 10:07:05 AM PDT by Kazan
It's more than a week into free agency and Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed. Remember, this is a quarterback who played in the Super Bowl only four years ago, yet now it appears he can't get a look from teams. So I set out to discover, once and for all, what teams think of the 29-year-old former Niner.
"He can still play at a high level," one AFC general manager said. "The problem is three things are happening with him.
"First, some teams genuinely believe that he can't play. They think he's shot. I'd put that number around 20 percent.
"Second, some teams fear the backlash from fans after getting him. They think there might be protests or [President Donald] Trump will tweet about the team. I'd say that number is around 10 percent. Then there's another 10 percent that has a mix of those feelings.
"Third, the rest genuinely hate him and can't stand what he did [kneeling for the national anthem]. They want nothing to do with him. They won't move on. They think showing no interest is a form of punishment. I think some teams also want to use Kaepernick as a cautionary tale to stop other players in the future from doing what he did."
When I spoke to a handful of executives at the combine a few weeks ago, one even called him "an embarrassment to football."
For the moment, the interest in Kaepernick is slim, and that's putting it kindly.
It's possible teams are waiting for the right time to make their play for him. That's sometimes how it works in free agency. Weeks or months will go by with little interest in a player and then, boom, it all heats up at once.
But what's happening with Kaepernick is highly unusual. So far, it seems he hasn't visited a single team. I can't find a quarterback-needy team that's interested. Again, things can change quickly, but the silence is deafening.
From a football perspective, teams worry about Kaepernick's throwing accuracy. He still has some difficulty hitting tight windows and sometimes runs even when receivers are open. In 2016, Kaepernick connected on 59.2 percent of his passes, which ranked 26th in the league.
There's also the perceptiona wrong onethat he has difficulty learning new schemes.
And if those weren't enough, concerns linger that he is moody and not a good teammate. That belief also may not be accurate. From speaking to 49ers players about Kaepernick, it's clear most of the San Francisco locker room liked him.
Kaepernick can take hope in how putrid the quarterback market is. When Jay Cutler is at the top of the heap, that says it all.
There are still teams desperate for a competent QB, so much so that one eventually will find the risk in signing Kaepernick is worth any potential backlash. That's my guess.
Still, it's hard to emphasize how unusual Kaepernick's current situation is. If a Super Bowl quarterback can walk and chew bubble gum simultaneously, he gets opportunities. Those opportunities usually arrive until that player is totally and completely done. That's not the case with Kaepernick.
Four years ago, he ran for a playoff-record 181 yards and two scores at Green Bay as the 49ers beat the Packers in a divisional playoff game, 45-31. The Niners would then go to Atlanta and upset the Falcons in the NFC title game before losing Super Bowl XLVII to the Ravens when a last-gasp drive fell five yards short. Throughout those playoffs, Kaepernick was more than capable, completing 61.3 percent of his passes, throwing only two interceptions and producing a combined quarterback rating of 100.9.
Guys like that get multiple shots.
Further adding to the intrigue is that teams understand Kaepernick hasn't been playing with a great deal of talent around him recently. The 49ers, frankly, have been a dumpster fire the past few years, and it showed with some of the players with which the team surrounded their QB.
Despite all of that, his phone is not ringing off the hook. Or at all, for that matter.
Kaepernick's new agents appear to have foreseen all of this, which is why it wasn't surprising when sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter that Kaepernick would start standing for the anthem.
Now, he sits. Waiting and waiting. A still-talented player whose political statement may have cost him his NFL career.
Tebow will never appear in an MLB game except as a publicity stunt. At about 30, he’s not going to go back to football either. Kaepernick is about the same age, and, unlike Tebow, was actually once considered a baseball prospect.
He was nowhere near the worst starting QB in the league last year. He had a 16-4 TD to INT ratio and can run the football. He also very little talent at receiver to work with last year.
But, it makes no sense to bring him in as backup and deal with all the controversy he brings with him.
Indeed. I believe his work ethic sucks. At that level, you cant just show up on Sunday and win. I suspect he's the type that rides his protected class status and no one will tell him to get off his ass and do the film and classroom work between game days.
Good good good, now he will have more time to hang out w/ his Muslim (.ie Islamic activist) girlfriend.
Yet, 37-year old Josh McCown is drawing more interest.
EJ Manuel and Geno Smith, two awful QBs that never had a year as a good as Kaepernick did LAST year, are still being signed backups.
Kaepernick is far more talented than any of them. But, no team wants him as a backup because he's a jerk and they don't want to deal with the controversy he brings.
Sooo,
The fact that he is a cancer for any team
And a real problem for a sizeable percentage of any fan base?
Winning isn’t every damn thing and i would NEVER root much less spend my money onsuch a team.
Feel-good story of the day!
Colin does not have the skills to scrape the Obama from the bottom of Tebow's shoes.
Patriotic karma! His chickens have come home to roost.
The new Cuban Football League, is looking for walk on talent.
Or Venezuela, where he might also be happy.
What goes around, comes around.
Colin and the NFL are getting all that they deserve and were begging for relative to his behavior. Let’s all pray that the RATs, MSM, GOP Elites all get everything that they deserve and are asking for as well.
As a tackling dummy.
Judging by the prowess of their defense in recent years, that would be a pretty safe job.
Yes indeed it is
Its too late. The NFL should have never tolerated that jack ass 1 damned minuter. Because they did— THEY BOUGHT it and I know personally 30 people who walked away and will never come back. He is despised and the NFL can go to hell.
This is my shocked face.
He’s an average quarterback with ticket sales disease. I loved watching him commit career suicide last year. Fascinating!
I really believe that if his playing abilities were worth more than a squirt of warm pee, one of these 30 owners would give him a job. That’s how desperate they are for QB talent these days, and shows how little of it Kaepernick actually has.
Same reasons a high school won’t hire him to coach.
Companies work deals. Sports teams are by no means the only companies that work deals with local governments to get free or cheap access. Looked at how Toyota decides where to build a plant lately? NASCAR gets plenty of public funding and tax breaks, that’s the nature of business.
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