Fooch's update: Brown realized how his comments sound, switches gears to throw Kap's agents under the bus
Clarifying: #Browns said they were called about interest in Colin Kaepernick. Source says it was player's agent, not 49ers.
— Tony Grossi (@TonyGrossi) March 21, 2016
The Colin Kaepernick saga has taken another turn as we move toward April 1, and whatever lies beyond that. The Cleveland Browns are now claiming their interest in the San Francisco 49ers quarterback was "over-reported", and that it was the 49ers who reached out to them about trying to do a deal.
Executive Vice President Sashi Brown is at the NFL owners' meetings, and he met with Browns meeting to discuss the state of the team's quarterback position.
Brown said the Browns are not actively engaged in trade talks with the 49ers for Colin Kaepernick, "and at this point we don't anticipate being engaged with San Francisco." He said the Browns were called to see if they were interested, and engaged in some preliminary talks. He said the Browns' interest was "over-reported," and that they never negotiated a draft pick or a new contract for Kaepernick.
We can't really believe anything anybody in the NFL says when it comes to trade talks. As always there are usually shades of grey in anything we hear. In this case, one extreme is that Sashi Brown is completely full of crap. The other extreme is that the 49ers are desperate and have effectively gone door-to-door trying to sell their used Kap.
I think that Sashi Brown is probably lying to some extent, and I also think the 49ers are probably going door-to-door to sell their used Kap. The 49ers have tried to made it clear through leaks and some direct comments that they are comfortable keeping Kap if a deal does not get done. It's possible they are in fact comfortable trying to re-build the relationship. It's also possible they are bluffing and hoping to convince the Broncos to get a deal done. As always, there is a little bit of everything involved.
I suspect at some point this week, we'll hear some national media reinforcing the notion that the 49ers are prepared to retain Kap. Ian Rapoport, Adam Schefter, and Jason Cole are the three most likely candidates to provide the latest such bit of rumor. If I were to give them odds, I'd say Cole is the favorite, Schefter is second, Rapoport is third.