I agree. Parrot is better than this. Kaepernick never received any offer nor was in negotiations with any team for any contract after opting out of his contract with the 49ers. Period. End of story.
Nobody put a contract in front of his face, but he did have negotiations.
Show me a source that says a team had discussions regarding actual contract parameters and I will agree with you. Just reaching out to Kaepernick and having preliminary discussions to gauge interest does not qualify.
I have seen the articles saying the Ravens would have signed Kaepernick had his girlfriend not made that tweet. That does not mean they were into contractual negotiations with Kaepernick at that time.
They were not. At most, we have Ray Lewis saying that but for the tweet, there might well have flown him in for discussions.
Although this has already been discussed, for a more complete picture:
John Elway -- Colin Kaepernick had chance to be with Denver Broncos, 'passed' - ESPN
Elway met with Kaepernick twice in 2016 as the Broncos and San Francisco 49er tried to work out a trade that would have sent Kaepernick to Denver. At the time, the Broncos wanted to trim Kaepernick’s guaranteed salary from $11.9 million to $7 million, whether that would involve the 49ers paying the difference or Kaepernick simply taking the pay cut.
After several rounds of discussion between the two teams, as well as a face-to-face meeting between Elway and Kaepernick at Elway’s house, a deal was not completed.
We had already discussed this on the CHB in the link I provided, where I made this point and you acknowledged it.
Side question: Truthfully, if you had been in Kaepernick’s position then, would you have taken a pay cut to be traded from the 49ers to the Broncos?
Most athletes listen to their agents and many times their agents overvalue their clients.
Mike Moustakis of the KC Royals is a prime example.
Kaep thought he was worth more than his market value.
This was before his last year with the 49ers. He’d have given up millions, for what?
Read the situation again. Kaepernick was under contract. Elway wanted him to take a pay cut as part of a trade to Denver. I asked if you would have agreed to take a pay cut if you had been in Kaepernick’s position. Kapernick did not agree and ended up playing that year for the 49ers with no pay cut.
Kaepernick opted out of his contract a year later. Had he not opted out, the 49ers would have cut him.
I am going on memory here, but when Kaepernick signed his contract I remember reading how it was not all that great. I found one article that was written three-years later with the benefit of hindsight:
From the looks of things, Kaepernick’s agent was an idiot, for reasons other than what you describe.
I have a business degree with several classes in economics, but there is no way in hell I can understand all the intracies of a NFL contract.
Need to be a lawyer and have business experience.
A handful of players (Russell Okung) have negotiated without an agent. I doubt it’s a good idea for most.
I know some teams employ an economist solely responsible for the salary cap.
I don’t pretend to understand the ins and outs of NFL contracts, but I think (stressing that word) I get the basics regarding guaranteed vs. non-guaranteed money, bonuses vs. annual salary and how that affects the salary cap, and the like. One thing I think I am safe in saying is that when you negotiate a contract, you write it so that a certain amount is guaranteed and that any performance bonuses are extras on top of that. You don’t write that with a base amount on top and then have the player penalized for not hitting certain targets by having his salary reduced. Granted, one can say it is the same either way at the end of the day, but that second concept just seems lousy.
Side note: Regarding signing bonuses vs. annual salary, going on memory when Tom Brady knew that he was going to be serving a four-game suspension for Delfategate, the Patriots re-did his contract to change a ton of his annual salary that year to a signing bonus. Thus, when Brady was docked the equivalent of four-games worth of salary, the annual salary that was docked was a lot lower. That is a good way to play games with the system.
I remember that happening.
Lets look at the other half of the equation.
- Tebow was vilified for taking a knee in prayer after scoring a touchdown.
- Tebow is only 33 y/o, which is still young especially since his body has not taken as much punishment as most NFL players by that age.
- Tebow is probably in the top 5% of “natural athletes” in the world, so the chances of him picking up the position and being successful are not really that bad.
All may be true, but IMO he isn’t going to be any better than he was last time he took played.
I honestly think it is Urban Meyer just getting him his pension.
Could be.
I can’t imagine Meyer taking up a roster spot as a favor to a friend, honestly that’s malpractice if Meyer wants to field the best team possible. Rather i think Tebow will put butts in seats and he just might make it as a tight end.
As far as your other point, 33 years old is over the hill in NFL. These people are freaks of nature.
If that is true, that does not speak much about Meyer’s priorities in filling out his roster. I don’t think that Shahid Khan had this in mind when he entrusted his franchise to Meyer. If I was a player on the Jaguars, I doubt I would be happy seeing a roster spot being occupied by a player who is only put there by the head coach so that he could get his pension.