Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh has discussed hiring Colin Kaepernick as an assistant coach, but Harbaugh says that won’t be happening any time soon.
Asked about his recent comments on Kaepernick, Harbaugh said after Thursday’s practice that Kaepernick will not be with the Chargers in any capacity this season.
“I love Colin, and always will, and that gets conflated into he might play here or might coach here. I love Colin, but he’s not going to be on the coaching staff — it’s set for this year. And he’s not going to be playing on the roster either,” Harbaugh said.
Harbaugh said he reached out to Kaepernick in early February, shortly after becoming the Chargers’ coach, but hasn’t talked to him since then. Still, Harbaugh does see something in Kaepernick that makes him believe Kaepernick could coach in the NFL. Harbaugh compared his feelings for Kaepernick to what the late Raiders owner Al Davis told Harbaugh when Davis hired Harbaugh to be the Raiders’ quarterbacks coach in 2002.
Harbaugh, who coached Kaepernick with the 49ers from 2011 to 2014, said he believed early in Kaepernick’s pro career that coaching could be in his future, and continued discussing that with him after Harbaugh left the 49ers to coach Michigan.
“I’ve thought that for a long time,” Harbaugh said. “Just the respect that I have for the football mind he has and the football man that he is. I’ve touched base with him several times, back to Michigan days, and when I started putting together the staff here I pulsed his interest — I don’t know how to explain it, Al Davis saw something in me that made him think that I would be a good coach, and I see those same qualities in Colin if it’s something he chooses, if it’s the path he chooses to do.”
Adding Kaepernick to the Chargers’ staff could be an idea Harbaugh revisits in 2025.