It has been three seasons since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick found a team willing to give him a chance to make an NFL roster. You hear fans from the NFL reference Kap’s record, completion percentage, and a bunch of other stats without using context. First off, look at the quarterbacks that threw passes in 2019. From Luke Faulk to Devlin Hodges, the quarterbacks that are on NFL rosters don’t come close to the talent of Kaepernick. The Athletic’s Matt Barrows tweeted out the 49ers starting lineup in Kap’s last start and woo buddy:
TE 49 J.Dray
LT 74 J.Staley
LG 62 A.Gardner
C 68 Z.Beadles
RG 65 J.Garnett
RT 77 T.Brown
TE 88 G.Celek
WR 14 C.Harper
WR 81 R.Streater
QB 7 C.Kaepernick
RB 24 S.Draughn
Not great! Because I’m a masochist, I went back and watched Kaepernick’s final start against the Seahawks. It was backyard football. Kap was running for his life behind that offensive line. I have no idea how the offense managed to move the ball as effectively as they did and score 23 points (the answer is the quarterback.) I do know why Chip Kelly is no longer in the NFL.
Richard Sherman was asked Wednesday if he feels like Kaepernick deserves to be in the NFL:
I can want him to have a job, and I can think he deserves a job as much as anybody, and everybody’s said it who said anything because he’s a good player and he showed he can play in this league. He can play at the highest level, so he deserves a job.
In order to answer those questions, I had to be one of the decision-makers who didn’t give him a job. And I’m not that person. I think until those people are asked those difficult questions, we’ll never get the answers.
When NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued an apology last week for how the league handled previous players protesting against police brutality, many were disappointed as Goodell didn’t mention Kaepernick’s name. The next step for Goodell is action, which could be an easy fix. That doesn’t mean giving Kap a job, though that’ll help. It could be as simple as lifting fining players who plan to protest the anthem. As Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes said, “we want to make sure this leads to action.”