After a series of disagreements with the NFL that had the league-approved workout shifted from the Falcons’ team facility in Flowery Branch, Ga., to a high school about an hour away, Colin Kaepernick finally got what he wanted — a fair, transparent and public forum to show that he still has the ability to play in the NFL. The logistical schism did affect Kaepernick’s ability to audition for a full audience — Kaepernick’s agent Jeff Nalley said that eight teams of the 24 to 25 who were supposed to be in attendance actually showed up to the later event. Many on hand were scouts and other personnel who had to travel ahead to their teams’ Sunday games.
Kaepernick arrived at Charles Drew High School in Riverdale, Ga., around 4 p.m. Eastern time, wearing the same “Kunta Kinte” shirt he wore at the deposition of Robert McNair, the late Texans owner, when McNair spoke in March 2018 at a hearing for the collusion grievance Kaepernick had filed against the league.
His receivers: Bruce Ellington, Brice Butler, Jordan Veasy and Ari Werts. Former 49ers teammate and current Panthers safety Eric Reid, who settled his own collusion grievance against the league, was also in attendance.
At 5 p.m., Kaepernick took his place at the 50-yard line, and his targets got in their places. After a few warmup throws, he consulted with his receivers regarding the route progressions, and the drills started.
As with any combine or pro day-style drill, it’s difficult to properly evaluate any quarterback who’s going up against air and throwing to uncovered receivers. Kaepernick threw quick outs, slants and pretty much everything else you’d expect from this type of workout, in which the idea is to show that the quarterback can throw with accuracy, velocity and timing.
Given the limitations of the one-camera live feed, there were limitations to how much this could be evaluated, but Kaepernick looked in shape, his mechanics clearly hadn’t taken too much of a hit from his inactivity, and his velocity on deeper throws was just fine. He overthrew his guys on a couple of deep passes, but was more accurate when he adjusted his platform and put more air under the ball. Kaepernick also ran several boot-action rollout throws, which was a wise move, as he was always good throwing on the run, and several NFL teams have increased their boot-action palette. On the simple slants and other angular routes, he showed good enough timing, and he was comfortable hitting his receivers in stride on the boot stuff. He didn’t lead his receivers into weird places on screens and other short passes. And you’d have to think that NFL teams would be interested in a guy who can get the ball downfield with this kind of velocity on post, seam and fade routes.
The things NFL teams will likely want to know about based on his previous body of work — how he reacts under defensive pressure, if he’s able to throw at different speeds and different arcs in game situations, and whether he’s able to consistently work his progressions? Those aren’t questions that can be answered in this particular forum. A team (or teams) would have to bring him in and put him to the test.
Whether that actually happens or not remains to be seen, but this was an important step in Kaepernick’s journey to get back to the NFL. He showed up looking like the guy you saw before, he clearly hasn’t been sitting on the couch binge-watching HGTV reruns and mainlining Cheetos, and from a pure physical talent perspective, he put enough on tape to make the intrigue real.
Again, these types of workouts are not meant to tell you everything you need to know about a quarterback. JaMarcus Russell, by all accounts, had the greatest pro day any quarterback’s ever had. But there was enough here for several teams whose postseason prospects may hinge on their ability to transcend their mediocre-to-awful quarterback situations to give the matter serious thought.
Kaepernick’s workout ended at 5:37 Eastern time. Now, we’ll see what the NFL’s response is to it. But all in all, this is a fairly major win for a guy who’s not played in the league since Jan. 1, 2017.
And clearly, he’s not lost his ability to speak his mind.
“It’s important that y’all are here,” Kaepernick said to a group of reporters and supporters after the workout. “Y’all been attacked for the last three years; y’all continue to be attacked. We appreciate what y’all do, we appreciate you being here today, we appreciate the work you do for the people in telling the truth. That’s what we want in everything.
“I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years. We all know why. I came out here today and showed it in front of everybody. We have nothing to hide. So, we’re waiting for the 32 owners, the 32 teams, Roger Goodell, all of them, to stop running. Stop running from the truth; stop running from the people. We’re out here. Ready to play, ready to go anywhere. My agent Jeff Nalley is ready to talk to any team. I will interview with any team at any time. I’ve been ready, I’m staying ready, and I continue to be ready.
“To all the people who came out here today to support — I appreciate y’all, I love y’all. To the people that aren’t here, I’m thinking of you, I appreciate your support from where you are. We’ll continue to give you updates as we hear. We’ll be waiting to hear from Roger Goodell, the NFL, the 32 teams — we’ll let you know if we hear from them.”
It’s a remarkable continuing story, really — a quarterback who appears perfectly capable of playing at a reasonably high level in the NFL in 2019 as he did in 2016 doing everything he can to get back in the league without kowtowing to the league’s demands. Whether he succeeds or fails in this quest, one thing’s for sure — Colin Kaepernick is going to be his own man, unrepentantly.
Touchdown Wire editor Doug Farrar has also covered football for Yahoo! Sports, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, the Washington Post, and Football Outsiders. His first book, “The Genius of Desperation,” a schematic history of professional football, was published by Triumph Books in 2018 and won the Professional Football Researchers Association’s Nelson Ross Award for “Outstanding recent achievement in pro football research and historiography.”
