Colin Kaepernick has settled his collusion grievance with the NFL, leaving some to ask if the former 49ers quarterback now will play in the league again.
Kaepernick’s attorney, Mark Geragos, has the answer: Yes, and he even predicted which teams might land his client, who has been out of football since the 2016 NFL season.
"I think you're going to see within the next two weeks that somebody's going to step up, somebody's going to do the right thing," Geragos said Saturday on CNN. "You want me to predict who? I will tell you, besides the Panthers, it would not surprise me if [Patriots owner] Bob Kraft makes a move.”
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So, there won’t be a return to the Bay Area for Kaepernick, as both the 49ers (Jimmy Garoppolo) and the Raiders (Derek Carr) seem set with starting QBs. Then again, so are the Panthers with Cam Newton and the Patriots with Tom Brady.
Does that mean Kaepernick would accept a backup role then? If so, the 49ers still wouldn’t make sense — coach Kyle Shanahan has said Kaepernick isn’t a fit, and the team practically forced his contract opt-out two years ago — but the Raiders could be a landing spot.
Coach/personnel czar Jon Gruden has a history of bringing multiple QBs to camp, and the Raiders’ current backups are AJ McCarron and Nathan Peterman.
Neither of those signal-callers have Kaepernick’s résumé. In fact, the Raiders’ decision to add Peterman, whose Buffalo Bills tenure was an interception-filled disaster, in December led many to wonder if there really was something to this whole “NFL collusion against Kaepernick” thing.
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Kaepernick is tied with Brady for the second-lowest interception percentage in NFL history at 1.8. Peterman, meanwhile, has a whopping 9.2 interception percentage.
But perhaps this stat is most telling when comparing the two QBs: Peterman has thrown three pick-sixes in his career. So has Kaepernick — in 61 more games. Protecting the ball is supposed to be an important QB trait in the NFL, and while Kaepernick has his faults, throwing costly picks isn’t one of them.
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Bay Area ties aside, the Panthers would fit for various reasons. Newton, like Kaepernick, is a mobile QB who likes to create plays while on the run, and safety Eric Reid, who joined his former 49ers teammate in the collusion case, just re-signed with the team.
Any NFL contract for Kaepernick would be progress at this point, though Geragos likely was speaking in hope rather than in reality about his client’s timeline and possible options.