Denver Broncos starting quarterback Drew Lock suffered a strained rotator cuff early in Sunday’s game, forcing backup Jeff Driskel into action. With now expected to miss as many as five weeks, the Broncos are making a move to bring in a more experienced starter than Driskel, and are reportedly signing former Jags QB Blake Bortles to a one-year deal.
Before the Broncos settled on Bortles, head coach Vic Fangio was asked about the possibility of Colin Kaepernick making a comeback to the NFL in Denver, but told reporters that Kaepernick’s name did not come up in conversations with GM John Elway. Less than one day later, Adam Schefter reported the Bortles deal.
During a segment on ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday, Max Kellerman argued that Broncos execs were guilty of “dereliction of duty” for not giving Kaepernick a workout to gauge his abilities, given his résumé.
“I have a huge problem with it. Nothing wrong with signing Blake Bortles, but wait a minute. If you’re looking for a quarterback and there’s legitimacy in terms of your competitiveness… if it’s really a meritocracy. If you have some kind of ethical responsibility to try to be your best, what possible excuse do you have for not bringing in a guy who went to a Super Bowl, who wants to play, to give him a look?
You don’t have to sign him. You’re not going to work him out to see if he still has it? At all? You’re not going to give him….. his name hasn’t come up? At all? Now, are you an incompetent organization? Is there some mandate to not bring him up? Or do you just know ‘let’s not go there.’ At any rate, that’s a dereliction of duty! You have to look to fill a position, and you wouldn’t even discuss bringing in Colin Kaepernick to give him a look? It lays bare the nonsense that has been going on about him. He’s clearly been, for lack of a better word, blackballed.”
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