Colin Kaepernick held an open workout on Saturday, organized by his own team after an NFL-sanctioned workout fell through.
Kaepernick has been effectively blackballed from the league since he protested police violence by kneeling during the national anthem on NFL sidelines three years ago.
Kaepernick was meant to throw passes in a closed workout on Saturday in front of scouts from a majority of NFL teams, an event hastily thrown together by the league, reportedly at the behest of Roger Goodell and Jay-Z, who has a business relationship with the league.
But when the NFL asked Kaepernick to sign what his representatives described as an “unusual” waiver, and the league refused to allow media to attend, Kaepernick walked away and held his own workout at an Atlanta-area high school.
The workout was open to media. There was a live stream of video.
We learned quite a bit from it. Let’s go through what takeaways we have, from how he played, to what it means, and whether or not he’ll be signed by a team going forward.
1. Kaepernick can still throw a football
The big question answered: Yes, Kaepernick can still throw a football. He looked in shape, showed good footwork, and showed that he can still make all the throws you want from an NFL quarterback.
Media in attendance were in agreement — he could throw the ball. He’s clearly still in shape.
Kap's best throw of the night, without question pic.twitter.com/WtsgumqPrH
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) November 16, 2019
2. Still, the workout won’t answer some questions
As Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar pointed out, the problem with a workout like this is that it won’t answer a lot of questions that NFL teams may have. How will Kaepernick deal with a pass rush? How is he at working through his progressions and finding the right receiver? He may be great at it, he may not be — there’s just no way of telling from the workout.
3. Kaepernick moved the workout when the NFL threw a curveball late
Kaepernick has apparently been in Atlanta since Thursday, but according to multiple reports, he was wary that the NFL would try to throw a curveball late, which is why he had a backup field ready to go.
The NFL did that — the league did not allow media to attend, and Kaepernick’s team also said that the league would take care of the video. According to ESPN’s Howard Bryant, Kaepernick was distrustful that the league wouldn’t doctor the video to show only his bad throws.
5) This was especially delicate because the Kaepernick team did not trust the footage the league would send out would be flattering. The fear was a 60-pass program might be edited down to his worst throws. The Kaepernick camp Friday night began preparing an alternate plan.
— Full Dissident (@hbryant42) November 16, 2019
The NFL then asked Kaepernick to sign a waiver that would not allow him to make any employment claim against the league in the event he wasn’t signed. Kaepernick’s team just wanted him to sign an injury liability waiver. Things broke down at that point, and Kaepernick walked away.
4. The NFL has its own side of the story, and it sounds like a waiver broke the deal
The NFL released its own statement, saying it was more than fair with the process. They pointed out that they were going to let Kaepernick film an advertisement with Nike, which I’m not sure why that’s relevant, but still.
UPDATE: Welp, turns out Nike may not have had anyone even there. Yikes, NFL.
A Nike spokesman said Nike did not have a camera crew on the ground in Atlanta and had no plans to use footage from Kaepernick's workout.
The spokesman wouldn’t say when, or whether, the ad would come out, but it seems Nike only wanted permission to use N.F.L. team names.
— Kevin Draper (@kevinmdraper) November 17, 2019
They also said the waiver they gave him was a standard one.
5. Most NFL teams left, but still: Some watched
The NFL claimed that “over three quarters” of the NFL teams were going to be represented at the workout. After the late change, somewhere between six and eight actually came to the workout Kaepernick organized.
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That’s not that many, but I’m actually surprised that even that many came once the league-sanctioned workout fell apart.
6. It’s unclear if any will sign him
Will any teams sign him? Who knows. Kaepernick showed he can still throw a football really, really well. It’s unclear if that will make a difference.
7. No one’s mind will change
Here’s what I do know: However you felt about Colin Kaepernick going into today, you probably feel the exact same way now. Such is America!
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