The sign Colin Kaepernick will never play in the NFL again
If we learned anything from the ongoing quarterbacking saga of the Redskins this past week it is this: It appears all but certain Colin Kaepernick will never play another NFL down.
If the quarterback-desperate Redskins — who lost starter Alex Smith to a broken leg that has become more serious since surgery then backup Colt McCoy also to a fractured leg — didn’t even invite the former 49ers quarterback in for a workout, then who will?
The Redskins signed Mark Sanchez to be McCoy’s backup when Smith went down, and now Sanchez, who was out of the league until two weeks ago, is the starter, backed up by someone named Josh Johnson, who was signed off the street this past week.
Prior to the signing of Sanchez, the Redskins also brought in T.J. Yates, EJ Manuel and Kellen Clemens for a look. That group owns a collective 12-24 record as NFL starters among them.
But no Kaepernick, despite his rare physical skills and the fact that he led the 49ers to a Super Bowl.
Redskins coach Jay Gruden said Kaepernick was “talked about and discussed” but he added that there’s “not a lot of time to get a brand new QB and a system installed and taught in a couple days.’’
With that, Gruden said, “We’ll probably go in a different direction.”
The same “different direction’’ every quarterback-needy team the past two-plus years has taken when it comes to Kaepernick, who with his outspokenness in activism and legal battle with the NFL over collusion against him is obviously radioactive despite how desperate any team seems to be.
The whole thing is preposterous — especially when you consider the the Redskins had the audacity to sign Reuben Foster, the former 49ers linebacker accused of domestic abuse, about 10 minutes after San Francisco cut him.
Johnson has an 0-5 record as a starter. Yates is 4-6. Clemens is 8-13.
Kaeprnick, who hasn’t played since 2016, is 28-30 as a starter and has thrown 72 touchdowns passes to 30 interceptions and has a career 88.9 passer rating.
We’re not trying to make him out to be Joe Montana in his prime, but anyone who knows even a tiny bit about football knows Kaepernick is a better quarterback not only than the players the Redskins brought in for tryouts but than most backups on current NFL rosters.
And the longer teams desperate for quarterback help — like the Redskins are right now — continue to avoid Kaepernick, the stronger his collusion case against the league gets.
He has a much better chance of winning in court than he ever does on the football field again. And that’s a shame.
