Market For Colin Kaepernick Smaller Than Expected

Colin Kaepernick appears not to have much of a market right now. But the San Francisco 49ers have not closed the door on him returning.

Last year, then San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick had an injury guarantee in his contract. He was already coming off an injury at that so they were reluctant to let him play. So he restructured his contract so he can opt out of it this spring and he did.

Looking at what Brock Osweiler got last year, Kaepernick must have liked his chances. This year’s draft class had to have made him like his chances even more. There are much worse QBs out there than a guy that took his team to the Super Bowl as recently as 2012.

But when free agency started, the market for Kaepernick wasn’t so big. It kinda makes you wonder if his protest during the national anthem had rubbed too many teams wrong. For goodness sakes, Geno Smith has a deal with the New York Giants pending his physical.

Kaepernick wasn’t bad in 2016, especially when you consider his lack of weapons and blocking. You can throw poor coaching in there too as Chip Kelly isn’t an NFL coach. The good news is 49ers GM John Lynch hinted on KNBR on Friday that a return to the 49ers is still possible.

In this interview, he said per NFL.com:

"“[Kaepernick] was, in everyone’s mind in this league, very close to signing a deal with a team at a really good number and it fell through, apparently. Here we are with two quarterbacks, but like we said, we’re gonna look at every option. The likelihood of that happening has probably gone down significantly, but we’re not going to close our mind or our options on anyone, including him.”"

Hearing that is making all the crazy people say, “So there’s a chance he returns.”

The fact that no one even wants him as a backup is telling.