The San Francisco 49ers placed quarterback Colin Kaepernick on injured reserve on Saturday, ending his 2015 season, and potentially getting us moving toward the end of his time with the franchise. Kap had shown up on the Week 11 injury list with a left shoulder injury, and was listed as probable when the final injury report was released.
After news got out that Kap was going on IR, media has been digging a bit deeper. Cam Inman is reporting he has a torn labrum in his left shoulder, and will undergo surgery on Tuesday in Denver. Kap's brother tweeted that he had the injury for 4.5 games, which would indicate he suffered it in the Week 4 loss to the Green Bay Packers. It's odd that he never showed up on the injury report for Weeks 5-9, but we know NFL teams play around with the injury reports.
Where this gets interesting is what it means for 2016. Kap's 2016 base salary is currently guaranteed for injury, but not for skill or cap. On April 1, the 2016 base salary becomes fully guaranteed. Up until this point, that was the notable deciding point with regard to a decision on the quarterback. The injury makes this a little more interesting with regard to his 2016 future. People have been asking if this means his 2016 base salary is now guaranteed. Jason from Over The Cap had this to say:
@VincentFrankNFL @Anthgn injury guarantees only kick in if player cant pass a physical on date of release. Not considered hurt if they can
— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) November 21, 2015
There is no guarantee he passes that physical, but my guess is both sides have to think this surgery will not create a problem come April 1. It is possible it will, but we'll be left waiting until the offseason to see how this situation plays out. There is a month and a half left in this season, and then three months of the offseason for the team to get this squared away.