To say Colin Kaepernick doesn’t deserve another shot in the league is delusional.
“No way, no team wants the drama! He sucks now, he’s been out of the league forev-“
Stop it.
In the past, I can understand not wanting the attention and the baggage that comes with signing him. In a time of heightened social justice and seeing that a large number of players will kneel or protest during the anthem throughout this season, this reasoning is void. The narrative has shifted and Kaep is seen as more of a pioneer now. Goodell himself admitted that the NFL was wrong and should’ve listened to their players over the protests.
It’s an important thing to remember that he initially sat on the bench for the anthem but switched to kneeling after taking the suggestion from former Army veteran Nate Boyer.
He’s also really unlucky. Had he been playing for a winning team at the time, his stats probably would’ve been good enough to overshadow the distraction of kneeling for the anthem.
Kaepernick came on the scene in 2012 after Alex Smith was benched, going 5-2 in the regular season and leading the Niners all the way to the Super Bowl. Had Jacoby Jones not scored a miraculous 108-yard kickoff return touchdown, San Francisco probably wins that game. Baltimore went up 28-6 just 11 seconds into the 3rd quarter. The 49ers rallied back, outscoring the Ravens 25-13 in the second half, eventually falling 31-34. Though a spectacular play from Jones, anything other than a touchdown that series leads to a win for the Niners. Kaep would’ve been praised as a champion in just his second year. His poor play in 2015 would be recognized and attributed to injury, as it was. His drama with the anthem wouldn’t matter nearly as much, because he was a Super Bowl champion. That one play could’ve potentially stopped this all from happening.
Disregarding ANY of that, I did some research that undeniably proves Kaepernick is worthy of being an NFL quarterback.
An important stat:
Kaepernick holds a tie for the third-lowest interception percentage in NFL history.
The list stands as follows:
Aaron Rodgers – 1.4%
Carson Wentz – 1.7%
Dak Prescott – 1.7%
Colin Kaepernick – 1.8%
Tom Brady – 1.8%
Russell Wilson – 1.8%
(Minimum of 1500 pass attempts)
Note that before last season, Kaep stood alone at second behind Rodgers. Colin’s career passer rating of 88.9 slates him at 24th all-time, ahead of Hall of Famers like Dan Marino, Brett Favre, and Troy Aikman.
His talent was proven on the field and was a consistent and successful starter for the Niners from his Super Bowl run in 2012, through 2014. In that time span, he amassed 8,380 yards, 50 TDs, 21 INTs, on a 60.4% clip, good for a rating of 90.7, through 39 starts. He was one of the league’s most prolific rushing quarterbacks, with 1,578 yards and 10 TDs.
“He was benched for Blaine Gabbert for a reason.”
Hoo, boy. Let’s address this. Sure, Kaepernick’s 2015 was a sight for sore eyes, but there’s a lot to unpack here. Before the season, Kaep’s closest ally in Jim Harbaugh “mutually agreed” to leave the team, which he later said was not by his choice. Defensive line coach Jim Tomsula was promoted to head coach. Michael Crabtree and Frank Gore dipped in free agency, and Patrick Willis unexpectedly retired. Carlos Hyde led the team in rushing yards with just under 500 yards in 8 games. An aging Anquan Boldin led the team in receiving with 789 yards and 4 TDs.
The team ranked last in points for on their journey to 5-11.
“Their offense was so bad because of Kaepernick.”
This isn’t the case. Kaepernick initially suffered a shoulder injury in Week 4, but played through it until being benched in Week 9. An MRI after the game concluded that he was playing on a torn labrum, which the surgeon had described as “extensive”. Gabbert’s stats were better, but not impressive, considering Kaep played half of his games with a significant shoulder injury.
Gabbert’s stats in 2015 – 63% completion- 2,031 yards – 10 Touchdowns – 7 interceptions – 185 rushing yards for 1 TD
Kaepernick’s stats – 59% completion – 1,615 yards – 6 Touchdowns – 5 Interceptions – 256 rushing yards for 1 TD
Upon being benched, Tomsula stated, “This was just a decision that I just felt like I wanted Colin to step back and breathe. 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.” At that point, Tomsula had no idea the severity of the shoulder injury, let alone knowing it was a labrum tear.
There was talk he could get cut following the 2015 season to open up cap space for the team. San Francisco stuck with him, even through a 4-6 month recovery period on his shoulder, and a separate 3 month recovery period for surgery on his thumb. He struggled to make it back, and finally saw a return to the field in Week 6 against the Bills.
“He wasn’t good in 2016 either.”
Not really. The 49ers as a team were worse in 2016, finishing at 2-14. However, there were flashes of the old Kaepernick who was almost a Super Bowl champion.
Through 12 starts in 2016, Kaep totaled 2,241 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions on 59% completion and a passer rate of 90.7. He also added 468 yards rushing and 2 touchdowns on the ground. Here are some of his best stat lines from the season.
29/46 – 296 yards – 3 touchdowns – 1 interception – 10 carries, 113 yards
24/39 – 398 yards – 2 touchdowns – 1 interception – 5 carries, 23 yards
28/37 – 266 yards – 2 touchdowns – 1 interception – 6 carries, 15 yards – W vs. Rams
Those are pretty decent, right? I won’t sit here and tell you those are stellar, but good for an above-average starting quarterback.
“Okay, he still got benched that season too.”
Week 13 held an unfortunate game for the 49ers in general. In the 4 games before this start, he had thrown for more yards than in any other 4 game stretch in his career. He was pulled from a game where he went 1/5 for 4 yards. In the snow.
He was benched in the 4th and brought back to start the next game in Week 14.
“He turned down contracts from other teams.”
This is really misleading. John Elway claims that he turned down a chance with the team, but this wasn’t after being blackballed from the league. The instance Elway is referring to was a potential trade to the Broncos between 2015 and 2016 that would’ve included a restructured contract with a significant pay cut. Kaep could not have envisioned this would be the last contract to be offered to him, and still had faith in himself following a poor 2015 season.
“He opted out of his contract with the 49ers.”
This is true, but it was honestly to make himself look better considering the Niners GM confirmed he would be cut regardless.
“It’s his fault no teams wanted him.”
It was rumored that there was a deal lined up for him to sign with the Ravens but was ruined because of a tweet from Kaepernick’s girlfriend. This was reported by ever the honest man Ray Lewis. Lewis publicly posted a video telling Kaep to keep his protests and work for social activism to himself, because it would strengthen his chances of being signed. Nessa Diab fired back, comparing a photo of Ray Lewis and Steve Biscotti, owner of the team, to a screencap from the movie Django Unchained. Lewis fired back, suggesting that the Ravens wouldn’t sign him because of that tweet, as Lewis claimed Biscotti was offended by the “racist” tweet.
“We are going through a process, and we have not made a decision. Steve Bisciotti has not told us we cannot sign Colin Kaepernick, nor has he blocked the move. Whoever is making those claims is wrong.”
Biscotti later replied on a fan forum that they were sensitive to fan concerns around signing him.
A deal was never made, and here we sit.
“The Seahawks didn’t like his workout with them.”
Steve Carroll, the longtime coach of the Seattle Seahawks did bring in Kaep for a workout following the 2016 season. Obviously he didn’t sign with the team. His reasoning was that Kaep saw himself as a starter, but the Seahawks were confident in what Russell Wilson was doing for them. Literally every quarterback wants to be the starter on a team they join. Signing a backup who would like to be a starter is what happens every time a QB inks a contract, except for Chase Daniel. Carroll later admitted he regretted the fact that they never signed him which makes no sense. It’s not like he was a hot commodity on the market and another team signed him. There was no reason they couldn’t have signed him at a later date, but I digress.
Thad Lewis, Scott Tolzien, and Austin Davis all signed deals that offseason. I understand Kaep had a much higher asking price, but I’m certain something could’ve been worked out.
“Didn’t he have a private league tryout? He must’ve done poorly, that’s why he wasn’t signed.”
Things get messy here. Apparently, according to Howard Bryant from ESPN, “The workout would be conducted at the Falcons’ training facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia, about an hour northeast of Atlanta. There would be no media. The date would be Saturday, Nov. 16 [2019]. The invitation also came with a hard deadline: Kaepernick had two hours to accept. Nalley called Kaepernick, who then called his best friend, Panthers safety Eric Reid. Kaepernick’s legal team convened for a conference call.”
There was a lot of back and forth here because Kaep’s group felt it was unfair to have the tryout be held under such strict guidelines, while also having only 2 hours to accept the offer.
Colin then became angered by the fact that the NFL shipped out emails to the media and NFLPA after they agreed on a call to keep the workout confidential.
An unnamed individual from Kaep’s group expressed his contempt over the situation. “They didn’t give the 32 NFL teams a heads-up, but they gave the media one? Once they betrayed us on the confidentiality agreement, we knew what this was.”
There also became a disagreement over a list of promised attendees and a discussion over an injury waiver. Kaepernick and his team hired an independent film crew so that his workout tape couldn’t be tampered or manipulated by the NFL.
There was suspicion among them that the workout was a stunt to get him to waive his rights, so a statement was issued on the subject.
An individual workout was held at a high school in Atlanta, with limited involvement from the original media team set to attend the NFL-planned one.
This entire scenario is a whirlwind of disagreements and confusion. Sports Illustrated’s Andrew Brandt was extremely skeptical that the planned workout was anything more than an excuse to say “Hey, we held a workout with Colin Kaepernick but do not intend to sign him” regardless of how well he performed.
Brandt elaborated that this is the first time in his 30-year career that the NFL specifically lined up a workout, which inexperience in the subject led to unusual clauses and agreements of the waiver. Having it happen on a Saturday in November seemed out of place, instead of holding it before or after the regular season. Teams had three years to do this, so why would a quickly set up workout that lasted for an hour actually produce interest in his signing?
He felt at this time, anxiety was still held around the league about how fans would react if he were to be signed. As I previously mentioned, though potentially valid before, (but still silly) it doesn’t matter anymore because a large number of players protest the anthem this season.
There is potential that the NFL was bothered by Kaep’s difficulty following their plan, which made them hesitate to sign him. All in all, the debacle that played out here was just odd, from all sides of the field.
“Whatever. He could’ve just signed in the XFL.”
He was offered a spot to sign for a team, but wanted way too much than any team in the league was willing to pay. People were mad about this, wondering whether his intent was actually to play football or just to cash out. Now Oliver Luck, (Andrew’s dad!) claims he asked for $20 million, which sounds a little ridiculous, as the league absolutely couldn’t have afforded that. I was confused until I read that the XFL held a rule stating that all players must stand for the anthem. Kaep probably took notice of this and asked for 20 mil, figuring that’s what it would take for him to stand and sell out.
Also, when you’re a player who feels like they 1000% deserve a spot at the highest level, you’re going to want to be paid a ton to be somewhere you don’t really belong. There was no guarantee that the XFL would succeed and that it would be a gateway for a shot at the league. Kaep made a statement here by showing that he holds himself to a higher standard and would accept nothing less than playing at the highest level. I see where’s coming from, as a former Super Bowl contender you would only want to play in the pros knowing you have the skills to be there.
“Still, he can’t be successful because he’s been out of the league for 4 years.”
Not so fast. Enter Josh Johnson, whose name you might recognize from the LA Wildcats of the XFL. Johnson is a former NFL quarterback, debuting with Tampa in 2009. From 2013 until the 2018 season, Johnson did not take a single snap in the NFL. He had two starts for Washington in 2018. Kaepernick’s play is a lot better than Josh Johnson, who spent even longer out of the league than Kaep did. If Johnson was good enough to get signed, Kaep certainly is.
“There’s no space for him in the league today.”
13 franchises currently only have two quarterbacks on their active roster. I went through depth charts and collected names of rostered quarterbacks that Kaepernick is better than without a shadow of doubt. No disrespect to these guys, but here they are:
Jeff Driskel
Brett Rypien
James Morgan
Ryan Finley
Logan Woodside
Mike Glennon
Jake Luton
Ben NiDucci
Tim Boyle
Ryan Griffin
Brett Hundley
Chris Streveler
Nathan Peterman
Wait, what? Nathan Peterman is currently on an active roster. That should be reason enough to convince anyone Kaep is good enough for a spot in the league.
I’m not saying he should be a starter, just that he would be fine as a backup. I think his Madden rating of 81 was egregious, but EA probably wanted nothing more than the attention that came with it. Though it’s funny to see people be infuriated over a made up rating in a video game.
Kaepernick’s career has been one of the most controversial and elaborate in football history. Think what you may of him in regards to the anthem, but denying his talent and belonging in the NFL is crazy talk.
