It turns out Warren Moon isn't all that dissimilar from some Internet commenters! The Hall of Fame quarterback is happy telling someone else to give up money in their contract. When it's not your money, it's certainly a lot easier to tell them to make the sacrifice!
Moon recently chatted with the Denver Post about the Colin Kaepernick situation, and he thinks the Denver Broncos are a perfect situation for Kaepernick. He thinks Kubiak's offense is "tailor-made" for Kaepernick, because he would not need to be a particularly effective passer, and Kubiak would be looking for more of a 48-52 pass/run ratio with a lot of play action and maybe some read option.
"I think it's a perfect situation for Colin and he gets to be around John Elway, he gets to be around Gary Kubiak, who was a quarterback, so you'll have good mentorship around you," Moon said. "In San Francisco, he was around defensive-oriented coaches, like Jim Tomsula. When Jim Harbaugh, an offensive-minded guy, was there, that's when he had his best year. I just hope his ego doesn't get in the way, because they're asking him to take a pay cut. He can make that money back."
There is a lot to unpack from this. First up, the "48-52" suggestion. The last time a Gary Kubiak coached offense reached that number was his Houston Texans in 2011, who passed 47.77 percent of the time. If we go back to his first year with the Houston Texans, back in 2006, his offenses have otherwise never dropped below passing 54 percent of the time. So I'm not entirely sure what he is looking at with that suggestion.
As to the ego issue, there is a lot to figure out with that. Reports suggest the Broncos either want Kaepernick to give up $4.9 million in salary in a restructured contract, or they want the San Francisco 49ers to pick up that $4.9 million. Yesterday, the 49ers dug in a bit, saying Kaepernick could either play for them or take the pay cut.
On the one hand, Colin Kaepernick requested a trade, so there is an argument to be made that he is the one who has to make the sacrifice. On the other hand, he might argue the 49ers have treated him poorly and don't want him around, so he should not have to give up money to go somewhere that actually wants him. And of course, there's the obvious point that his contract is fully guaranteed, and the 49ers were happy to negotiate that deal back in 2014.
On the Broncos side of things, they would argue the 49ers and Kaepernick don't want to work together, and so why should they have to pay full price. On the other hand....Mark Sanchez.
And the 49ers? Well, Kaepernick is under contract so they certainly don't have to trade him, but if they really don't want to keep him, they might have to eat some money.
The situation is more complicated than your normal trade request, and is going to take some time to sort out. Warren Moon won't be the last person to weigh in on this, and probably not the last former player to offer his two cents. I wanted to include a poll asking what is the most equitable result, but there are so many different ways this could play out, it's hard to figure that out.