The San Francisco 49ers quarterback situation just gets more and more bizarre. NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport just tweeted that the 49ers and quarterback Colin Kaepernick are close to restructuring his contract to “alleviate concerns” about some of the injury guarantees included in the deal. Matt Barrows tweeted that he was hearing something similar about a deal that could be for two years.
Kaepernick secured his 2016 salary when was still injured on April 1 of this past spring. His 2017 base salary is $14.5 million, and it becomes fully guaranteed for injury if he gets hurt and cannot pass a physical on April 1, 2017. There has been speculation he might not be playing because of concern surrounding the injury guarantees. Chip Kelly denied that, but clearly there is some smoke to that rumor.
If they are re-working the deal with regard to the injury guarantees, this would seem to be a strong indicator that he could be back on the field and starting again very soon. My guess is a restructured deal includes some portion of guaranteed money, with the 2017 injury guarantee removed. Whatever the case, if I am Kaepernick, I am looking for some kind of up-front money or other guarantee in exchange for doing this.
Does this mean we see Kaepernick a week from Sunday against the Buffalo Bills?