Colin Kaepernick is not joking when he said he’s ready to return to the NFL. After working out with Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Tyler Lockett, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll told reporters that Kaepernick reached out to him and sent him videos from the workout. Carroll said Kaepernick deserves to be in the NFL but wouldn’t say if he was going to join the Seahawks.
“Does that guy deserve a second shot? I think he does,” Carroll said, per CBS Sports. “Somewhere, I don’t know if it’s here. I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know if it’s in football, I don’t know.” In the video, Kaepernick showed off his arm strength by hitting short, intermediate and deep passes. But what could hold him back is the fact he hasn’t played a down in the NFL since the end of the 2016 season when as a member of the San Francisco 49ers he was kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. It led to a lot of backlash against Kaepernick, who has not signed with another NFL team since.
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But in 2020, Carroll revealed that the Seahawks brought in Kaepernick for a visit in 2017. “I regret that we weren’t the one way back when that just did it just to do it, even though I thought that it wasn’t the right fit necessarily for us at the time,” Carroll said at the time. He also revealed the reason for not signing Kaepernick: “I held him in such a high regard, I didn’t see him as a backup quarterback and I didn’t want to put him in that situation with [Russell Wilson].”
One reason Kaepernick reached out to the Seahawks could be the fact that the team traded Wilson to the Denver Broncos. The Seahawks have quarterbacks Drew Lock, Jacob Eason and Geno Smith on the roster and there is no clear-cut starter. Even if the Seahawks brought in Kaepernick, could he make the 53-man roster once the season begins?
Kaepernick was a member of the 49ers from 2011 to 2016. In 69 games, Kaepernick completed 59.8% of his passes for 12,271 yards, 72 touchdowns and 30 interceptions. He also rushed for 2,300 yards and 13 touchdowns on 375 carries. In 2012, Kaepernick led the 49ers to the Super Bowl, but the team lost to the Baltimore Ravens.
