In 2020, coach Pete Carroll said, via Gregg Bell of The News Tribune, the Seahawks “wouldn’t hesitate (signing Kaepernick) if Russ (Wilson) ever got tangled up and couldn’t play or something. Kaep would have been an extraordinary candidate to take over. He deserves to be playing.”
Two years later, Wilson is in Denver; the Seahawks are looking for a quarterback; and Kaepernick remains available.
During a long take on free agency being a second chance for players, Carroll brought up Kaepernick unsolicited.
“I thought about another guy,” Carroll said. “You can ask questions about Colin Kaepernick. I know. You’re going to ask me, so let me just put it out there. He contacted me the other day. Said, ‘Hey, I’d like to get a shot. I’m working out.’ He sent me some vidoes. Next thing I know, he’s working out with Tyler Lockett. I don’t know how that happened. Does that guy deserve a second shot? I think he does. Somewhere. I don’t know if it’s here. I don’t know where it is. I don’t know if it’s even in football. I don’t know.”
Yeah, but it feels like we’ve been talking about Kapernick, for 40 years. It’s only been 9, but why would a team want a player who hasn’t played in almost 10 years when there are players coming out of college that they can get - and likely for less money than Kapernick wants.
If a pundit had written that, I would agree with you and would not have posted. However, Pete Carroll made that comment, and it is not the first time. That is why I made Carroll the subject of this post, not Kaepernick. When Carroll keeps saying that Kaepernick deserves a second shot and then does nothing himself, he looks full of hot air. This is especially true now that Russell Wilson is no longer on the Seahawks.
Somewhat related to this, if you believe reports now DeShaun Watson is down to the Saints and Falcons after eliminating the Browns and Panthers from his suitors. In light of the backgrounds and the issues with both players, I am waiting for somebody to write a column comparing teams’ refusing to sign Kaepernick to teams willing to trade a fortune for Watson.
Not disagreeing with you. If I was an NFL owner or GM who signed Watson, I would say the same thing. I would also not want to have to answer why I refused to sign Colin Kaepernick while signing Watson, since the comparison between what they did would not be very good. The truthful answer would be obvious: “Watson is a franchise quarterback who can take my team to the promised land while Kaepernick is not. I am therefore willing to overlook what happened with Watson and to put up with any flack I get for signing him.” Do you think any owner or GM would actually say that, though?
However, back to my original point. Up to now I have seen a lot of comparisons of Kaepernick to quarterbacks with lessor talent and records who were signed. I am wondering if there will be any comparisons of Kaepernick to Watson regarding non-football issues, especially from writers who have been critical of the NFL for not signing Kaepernick.
That would be valid.
Kaep, while being a POS, has done nothing illegal or immoral.
I would argue that in the Watson scenario where there is smoke there is at least a little bit of fire.
But this in the NFL, this is not really suprising.
It goes back to what I said before. If Kaepernick had had Tom Brady numbers, he could have knelt to his heart’s content and still had a job. Had he not knelt, he would have had a job. However, he did kneel and for NFL franchises his talent level was not enough to outweigh the hassles that came with him kneeling.
With Watson, his talent level outweighs any flack that the team that acquires him will have to deal with.
I just wonder if any of those writers who were critical of the NFL for not signing Kaepernick will point this out and make the comparison.
Here is a good column making the case of how Carolina would have been hypocritical to acquire Watson after several comments the current owner made after the previous owner was forced out over his own issues. It does not, however, mention Kaepernick.
Can’t imagine why the Falcons are courting him, assuming they are. They are tied into big bucks with Matt Ryan who is a good QB when he is not getting knocked on his butt every other play. If they have those kind of bucks, buy a new and improved offensive line.
And Watson choses to go to Cleveland after all. According to this report, the Browns are giving him a fully guaranteed five-year $230 million dollar contract.
I don’t follow Cleveland all that much, other than to know that they were laughingstocks for years, but Baker Mayfield had them looking like a pretty decent team. They gave the Chiefs a run for their money in the playoffs.
They have been pretty much a clown show since coming back into the league as an expansion team. For the first time in a while it looks like their GM and coach are on the same page and they don’t have the dysfunction that the previous regimes did.
Also, of note, Baker Mayfield was drafted under a previous regime, meaning that the current regime was not as invested in him and more willing to let him go. Still, they gave up a ton for Watson. Here is a column from a prominent Cleveland sports columnist who isn’t all that happy about this.