It is Summer in America, and as usual, it’s hot, dogs and burgers are on the grill, no one is drinking Bud Light, and of course, Colin Kaepernick still thinks he deserves a job in the NFL. Despite the fact he hasn’t played since 2016, and he is now 35 years old, Kaepernick still maintains he is an elite talent, and he is working out 6 days a week waiting for NFL teams to beat his door down with contract offers. There’s a better chance of Bud Light being on the menu than Kaep being on an NFL roster.
Kaepernick still labors under the illusion that he is an NFL-caliber quarterback. Actually, he may be right if he were willing to accept that he would be nothing more than a veteran-minimum salary backup. An insurance policy of sorts. Unfortunately, Kaep still thinks he is the gimmicky quarterback from 2012 and 2013, his two good seasons in the league.
To be fair, it was two amazing seasons. NFL defenses simply weren’t prepared for his combination of size and raw speed. Kaepernick only threw for 21 touchdowns, but he chipped in 524 yards and four touchdowns on the ground and kept defenses off-balance all the way to the NFC Championship game.
The previous season Kaepernick guided the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl before losing to the Baltimore Ravens. It appeared as if Kaep would be the next big thing. However, NFL defensive coordinators are the best in the sport, so as always, they made adjustments. Since Kaepernick lacked the processing ability to read an NFL defense, his level of play suffered once teams figured out how to take away his rushing ability.
Subsequently, Kaepernick struggled mightily in his last couple of seasons in the league. In 2016, Kaepernick posted a 1-10 record as a starter, and coupled with his bombastic political antics, became a huge distraction. However, the 49ers offered him a contract despite what the liberal sports media reports. Kaepernick, in fact, opted out of his contract with San Francisco in 2017. Thus began the long road to unemployment for Colin Kaepernick.
Now, here we are, the Summer of 2023, and we are talking once again about Colin Kaepernick. Despite blowing off a scheduled workout and holding his own instead in 2019, and having what Hall of Famer Warren Sapp called a “disaster” of a workout with the Raiders, the enigmatic former player still thinks he deserves a shot.
He recently said in an interview: “I’m going to keep pushing. I’m going to keep fighting for it because I know I can step on the field and play. Every workout, every opportunity I’ve had to show that, the feedback has always been positive. Everything from, ‘He’s still an elite player,’ to ‘The workout was great; it was better than expected.’
“When I had my workout with the Raiders last year, even training with guys, there’s a decent amount of people who may have forgotten what I was capable of doing on the field, so any chance to be able to remind people of what I can do out there, I look forward to and embrace, and I look forward to the day that I get to step on the field and show people what I can do.”
Obviously, if NFL GMs considered Kaepernick “elite,” one would think he would be on a team. But would he? At this point in his career, does a backup quarterback that has likened the scouting combine to the slave trade and famously claimed white cops killed black people so they could get paid time off merit a contract? Are the distractions worth it?
Obviously, since 2017 the answer has been no. Why would a team want to take on a distraction with eroded skills like Kaep? When he opted out of his contract with the 49ers, the league had already schemed him out, so why would he be any better now?
Kaepernick took a veiled shot at current NFL backups: “I’ve heard a lot of excuses over the years…but most of the time it ends up, ‘Oh, we’re going to see how the guys that we have do.’ With the Raiders’ situation last year, that was Stidham and Nick Mullens, which to me, you just compare résumés and capabilities, on top of the workout and the feedback, it’s like, ‘O.K., cool.'”
Perhaps the difference is Mullens and Stidham WANT to be there and work hard to stay there, even as backups. Kaepernick, on the other hand, thinks he should be gifted a shot because he had a couple of good seasons a decade ago.
The fact is, Colin Kaepernick is a grifter and a distraction, and any team that would sign him would be in for a circus sideshow the likes no team has seen in a long time. However, maybe it would be best if a team would take him on and actually let him play. Then, after seeing what an abject failure he would be, perhaps we could have an NFL off-season without seeing Colin Kaepernick’s face. It’s ok to dream, right?
Featured image screen grab from embedded YouTube video
"*" indicates required fields