Tag: Colin Kaepernick

Lions will send a rep to the Colin Kaepernick workout

No word on who will represent the Lions at the workout

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is holding a workout in Atlanta this Saturday in an attempt to reboot his career. All 32 teams are invited to the audition, which will include an on-field workout and interview period.

The Detroit Lions have confirmed they will have a representative at Kaepernick’s workout. Coach Matt Patricia spoke about it with the media on Wednesday.

“As an organization, we always do our due diligence on all players that are available,” Patricia said. “So I know (GM Bob Quinn) and his staff will have someone down there to watch the workout and we’ll see where that goes.”

The Lions have unease at quarterback currently with Matthew Stafford’s back injury. Jeff Driskel filled in against the Chicago Bears and showed enough to earn another start in relief. The Lions also have undrafted rookie David Blough on the active roster.

Kaepernick has been out of the NFL since 2016. He gained notoriety for being the leader of the movement which saw players kneel for the national anthem, a wildly divisive act. This will be his first workout for any NFL team since the San Francisco 49ers severed ties with him.

Report: Chargers ‘not sure’ about attending QB Colin Kaepernick’s workout

The Los Angeles Chargers are not certain whether or not they will be attending quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s workout on Saturday.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick will be working out in Atlanta, GA on Saturday for a workout in front of multiple NFL team owners and coaches.

The Chargers told ESPN’s Josina Anderson they were not definitely sure whether a team rep would attend Kaepernick’s workout. The said the team might send a scout, but emphasized they’re good with the position.

Had it been two years ago, it might’ve been a different story.

With Philip Rivers, Tyrod Taylor and rookie Easton Stick, it is not a pressing position of need. If Kaepernick had this workout a couple years back, the Bolts might have been more enticed by it because then, the team had Cardale Jones and Kellen Clemens as the backups to Rivers.

Kaepernick last played in the NFL in 2016 with the San Francisco 49ers and stirred up attention after kneeling during the national anthem, which ended up being a legal suit. The lawsuit has been settled and he will look to make his return to the league.

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Redskins will send someone to watch Colin Kaepernick’s workout

Colin Kaepernick is holding a private workout for all 32 NFL teams on Saturday, and the Redskins will be in attendance.

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News broke in the NFL on Tuesday that free agent Colin Kaepernick would be holding a private workout for all 32 teams on Saturday in Atlanta.

A number of teams will take a look at the veteran QB who hasn’t played in several years, and the Washington Redskins will be one of them. Coach Bill Callahan originally cited that they already have three quarterbacks and are not looking for more, but John Keim of ESPN reported that the Redskins will be in attendance to watch Kaepernick.

While Kaepernick could have been an interesting addition to the team a couple of years ago, after Kirk Cousins left for Minnesota, he doesn’t fit with the current roster at the moment. As Callahan noted, the Redskins have what they think can be a franchise quarterback in rookie Dwayne Haskins, and any distraction to him would severely hinder future growth.

Now that Haskins was finally named the starter for the rest of the season, you shouldn’t expect much QB movement in Washington – even with the team going to evaluate Kaepernick.

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We have so many questions about the mysterious Colin Kaepernick workout

The timing, the format, the lack of coverage … none of this makes any sense.

Tuesday’s news that the NFL would be holding a private workout for Colin Kaepernick should have been good news. It was the first sign of progress in this whole ordeal, which has become an ever-growing PR nightmare for the league and led to the prolonged unemployment for a player who clearly belongs in the NFL.

But as more details were revealed, it’s becoming harder and harder to maintain any level of optimism that this will lead to the 32-year-old landing with a team.

A quick summary of how things will go, via reports from Adam Schefter and Mike Silver:

  • Having been offered the opportunity on Tuesday, Kaepernick will have only a few days to prepare for the workout. His people asked the NFL to move the workout to Tuesday — when workouts are typically held — but the league wouldn’t budge. It would have to be on Saturday.
  • As a result — with coaches and team execs traveling to games — the workout will mostly be watched by scouts who don’t carry any decision-making power.
  • Silver reports that Kaepernick will be made available for interviews with teams but, for whatever reason, the league did not ask Kaepenrick’s permission and his people were not made aware of it when the offer was made.
  • It’s also unclear who will run the workout and which receivers Kaepernick will be throwing to.

The odds are greatly stacked against Kaepernick, but, at the very least, he’s getting a shot to prove to NFL talent evaluators that he still has it, which is nice and can be seen as progress. Just one problem: There will be no media access to the event. So that means any reviews will be coming from anonymous employees who work for a league that has already paid to get out of a lawsuit that alleged it had colluded to blackball Kaepernick.

From a public relations standpoint, the best-case for the NFL would be Kaepernick bombing the workout. That is undeniable, as it would allow the league to point at the failed workout whenever it is accused of keeping Kaepernick out of the league not based on merit but because his politics make some people uncomfortable.

The NFL not allowing media to attend the workout makes little sense. This is a league that never turns down an opportunity to bring in viewers, and a broadcast of Kaepernick essentially playing for an NFL job would bring in millions of viewers. This isn’t just a football story. It’s a news story that would capture the attention of the country. There is so much money to be made and the league is just turning it down. You HAVE TO wonder why that is. Sure, teams would NEVER allow media to cover individual player tryouts, but this clearly isn’t that. It appears to be an unprecedented, pop-up NFL Combine meant for one former player — and the combine gets plenty of coverage. As do pro day workouts for NFL prospects.

With no media in attendance, NFL employees will have total control over the narrative, so if you are looking for a potential benefit for the league, there it is.

The media thing isn’t the only curious aspect of this workout. You have to wonder why now? Why would the NFL wait years after Kaepernick played his last game to do this (and then do it in November)? You also have to wonder what it’s going to take for him to impress scouts. If he’s the same guy we saw in 2016, will that be good enough? And if that’s the case, and NFL teams are interested in that version of Kaepernick, why did it take this long for him to get a workout? In 2013, Jamarcus Russell had no problem getting a private workout with the Bears. This was FOUR YEARS after his last NFL appearance and Russell was one of the worst quarterbacks of all-time. Teams also showed interest in J.P. Losman years after he flamed out of the NFL. The dude was drafted in 2004 and last played in 2011, yet teams were asking if he’d consider a comeback in 2019! Meanwhile, Kaepernick hasn’t worked out for a single NFL team since his last game with the 49ers on Jan. 1, 2017.

So, again, I ask, why now? Could it be that the league tried to show everyone that it was looking to mend bridges with the announcement of the partnership with Jay-Z and Roc Nation and after that failed, this Potemkin workout is what they came up with? That makes a lot more sense than the league changing its mind after years of claiming that this was an issue of merit.

I could very well be on the wrong side of this. Maybe this interest is genuine and Kaepernick will land a job with an NFL team. But this skepticism is well-earned and if the league is getting undue criticism, it has nobody to blame but itself.

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Broncos will send a scout to Colin Kaepernick’s workout

The Broncos will send a scout to free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s workout in Atlanta.

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The NFL announced Tuesday that the league is hosting a workout and interview session for free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Saturday. The workout and interview will take place in Atlanta.

All of the league’s 32 teams have been invited to the event and the Denver Broncos will be represented by a scout, general manager John Elway told KUSA-TV’s Mike Klis on Wednesday. Klis’ report was confirmed by The Athletic’s Nicki Jhabvala.

The news is a little surprising given Elway’s tone on Kaepernick when he was asked about the QB last year.

“I said this a while ago: Colin had his chance to be here,” Elway said during a training camp press conference in August 2018. “We offered him a contract [and] he didn’t take it.”

Elway was referencing the 2016 offseason when Denver tried to trade for Kaepernick when he was still a member of the San Francisco 49ers. As part of the deal, the Broncos wanted the QB to take a significant pay cut. Kaepernick opted not to take a reduced salary.

“He had his chance to be here,” Elway said last August. “He passed [on] it.”

After missing out on Kaepernick, Denver selected Paxton Lynch in the first round of the 2016 NFL draft. Lynch, Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Case Keenum, Joe Flaco and Brandon Allen have all started games for the Broncos since then and Drew Lock might be added to the list later this year.

Kaepernick tried to prove that NFL owners colluded not to sign him in part because of his national anthem protests during the 2016 season and Elway was among league executives who were deposed in the lawsuit. The NFL reached a settlement with Kaepernick earlier this year.

Denver has been unable to find a good QB in the post-Peyton Manning era so taking a look at Kaepernick makes sense. The 32-year-old QB threw 16 touchdown passes and four interceptions in 12 games in 2016, the last year he played in the NFL. He has remained a free agent since 2017.

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Report: Bengals will evaluate Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout

A new report says the Bengals will have an eye on the workout.

The Cincinnati Bengals will keep an eye on Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout over the weekend.

According to Tyler Dragon of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the team will evaluate the details of the process. No word on if the front office will have anyone in attendance, but it sounds like the Bengals will indeed join the fray of at least getting the film to evaluate the happenings.

The NFL announced Tuesday that Kaepernick would partake in a workout for teams on Saturday in Atlanta, including on-field work and interviews. Teams have been invited, though we’ve yet to see official attendance sheets make the rounds.

Kaepernick turned 32 earlier this month and hasn’t played since 2016.

From a Bengals perspective, paying attention to the happenings there makes some sense with Andy Dalton clearly on his way out the door, leaving — for now — only Ryan Finley as the future of the position.

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Bill Belichick mum on whether Patriots will attend Colin Kaepernick’s workout

Bill Belichick deferred questions on Colin Kaepernick.

Bill Belichick said he didn’t know if the New England Patriots would be attending quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s workout, organized by the NFL to take place on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.

“It’s something we can check with (Patriots director of player personnel) Nick (Caserio) on,” Belichick said Wednesday during a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m not sure.”

The Patriots did not respond with comment from Caserio at the time of publication of this article.

Kaepernick has been out of the league since he played for the San Francisco 49ers in 2016, which followed his protest efforts by taking a knee during the national anthem at NFL games. When he’d spent an extended time out of the NFL, he and former 49ers teammate Eric Reid filed grievances against the league through the NFL Players Association, and Kaepernick and Reid received an undisclosed settlement.

The league put together a workout for Kaepernick on short notice, and informed him of the potential meeting with teams on Tuesday, at which point they gave him just hours to make a decision, according to ESPN. And while most NFL teams will be traveling for games on Saturday (and Kaepernick’s representation asked the workout be moved to Tuesday, a day when evaluators will be freer to travel), the NFL declined to move the date, per ESPN. It’s unclear how many teams will attend the workout, but former Patriots linebacker coach and current Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores confirmed his staff will send someone.

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Should the Bears attend Colin Kaepernick’s private workout on Saturday?

Given the Bears will be exploring all options at QB in 2020, should they send scouts to Colin Kaepernick’s private workout Saturday?

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The Chicago Bears are no strangers to quarterback struggles from the time that Colin Kaepernick was left in NFL limbo following the 2016 season to the present, where former No. 2 overall pick Mitchell Trubisky’s struggles have him facing an uncertain future in Chicago.

Kaepernick will be participating in a private workout Saturday in Atlanta, where all NFL teams are invited to come out and watch his on-field work and interview him.

Given the Bears will likely be exploring all options at quarterback in 2020 — including sticking with Trubisky, bringing in competition, drafting a quarterback or bringing in a new starter — should Chicago give Kaepernick a look?

While there’s no denying that Kaepernick would do well in a system like Matt Nagy’s, the simple fact of the matter is that he hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016. Who’s to say he’s ready to return to the physical demands of the professional game?

But, then again, that’s exactly what his private workout will serve to do. Well, at least as well as it can aside from live game action.

Regardless, the Bears should do their due diligence and send someone to Kaepernick’s workout Saturday in case he’s a very real option for the Bears in 2020.

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Will Giants attend Colin Kaepernick’s NFL workout?

Colin Kaepernick will reportedly hold a workout in Atlanta on Saturday and the New York Giants are invited — but will they attend?

The New York Giants have a substantial amount of problems, but one area they are unlikely to address any time soon is the quarterback position, where rookie Daniel Jones seems to have a good handle on things (except the football, that is).

For that reason, it seems unlikely the team will send representatives to Atlanta on Saturday where controversial quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is currently slated to hold a private workout and interview session.

That is, of course, if Kap and his management go through with it.

Although Kaepernick has tweeted his excitement about the workout, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports there is an ongoing disagreement over the date of the workout, with Kaps’ representatives pushing the NFL to hold the workout on Tuesday of the following week or a later Saturday.

It seems more than a little curious that Kaepernick & Co. would want to wait even longer for an opportunity to return to the NFL, but that’s for another website and set of authors to debate.

The question is, with an invitation extending to all 32 teams, will the Giants attend if Kaepernick actually goes through with the workout and doesn’t mysteriously bail because things aren’t exactly the way he wants them?

The belief is that Kaepernick still wants to be a highly-paid starter, and that’s not going to happen with the Giants even with their need for a quality backup going into 2020. And even if he resigned himself to being a back-up, it seems unlikely that co-owner John Mara would sign off on Kap in The Big Apple.

“All my years being in the league, I never received more emotional mail from people than I did about [the national anthem protests],” Mara told Jenny Vrentas of MMQB in 2018, adding that the team never discussed signing Kaepernick. “‘If any of your players ever do that, we are never coming to another Giants game.’ It wasn’t one or two letters. It was a lot. It’s an emotional, emotional issue for a lot of people, more so than any other issue I’ve run into.”

Kaepernick caused a country-wide stir with his decision to kneel for the national anthem in protest of what he perceived to be racial injustices, which is a trend that exists in the sports world to this day.

But in Mara’s mind, it would be way too much of a distraction for a player who likely wouldn’t see the field.

Still, several current and former Giants have spoken out in favor of signing Kaepernick, including Michael Strahan, Saquon Barkley and Antoine Bethea.

The support in the Giants’ locker room aside, don’t expect Big Blue to send a representative to Atlanta on Saturday because there isn’t a place on the roster for Kaepernick and no logical potential use for an aging backup quarterback who has been out of the league for years after opting out of his San Francisco 49ers contract and turning down the Denver Broncos.

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Colin Kaepernick should tell the NFL to go take a hike

This workout for all 32 teams doesn’t have a good feel to it.

This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

News came out late Tuesday afternoon that the NFL will be holding a private workout for former 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick in Atlanta on Saturday. All 32 teams are invited to attend and watch as he puts in work on the field and then will also be available for team interviews.

At first glance this looked like good news for a man who has been blackballed by the league for the last three years just because he had the gall to take a knee during the national anthem in order to raise awareness on racism and social justice.

Kaepernick later tweeted that he was looking forward to the opportunity and was looking forward to seeing coaches and GMs in Atlanta.

But then some more details came out. The NFL, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, informed Kaepernick’s reps about the workout on Tuesday. His reps had asked the league for the workout to be on a Tuesday, when most tryouts are held, but the league said no. His reps asked for the workout to be on a later Saturday, but the league said no.

So now Kaepernick gets to workout on a few days notice (which isn’t a huge problem since he’s been working out five days a week since he’s been out of the NFL) and on a day before most teams will have a game, which means attendance will likely be very low, if anyone shows up at all.

All of which feels like another slap in the face of a man who has done absolutely nothing wrong. A man who recently spent his 32nd birthday handing out food and supplies to homeless people in Oakland. A man who has handled all of this with class.

I’ve always thought it’s BS that Kaepernick hasn’t been able to get a look from any NFL teams who could desperately need a backup QB with his abilities and his experience.

But now this move by the NFL seems sketchy at best. It also seems like it would be a perfect time for Kaepernick to tell the NFL to go you-know-what itself and go on with the rest of his life helping others and fighting for causes that need his support.

I know it’s Kaepernick’s dream, however, to return to the league and show everyone that he can play and I’d never be one to steer someone away from trying to reach their dreams. But this whole thing from Day 1 has been an ugly mess for everyone involved in the NFL and the way they’ve treated Kaepernick has been an utter embarrassment.

Now I know there are a ton of fans out there who get heated just hearing his name and yell about leaving politics out of sports, though those people are often quick to throw their politics in your face while arguing against Kaepernick’s hopes of playing in the NFL again.

So it would be great if he could deal those people a blow by making it back to the league.

And I know a lot of fans are quick to yell about how he’s a bad quarterback and doesn’t deserve to be in the league.

But we all know he has more than enough talent to be on a NFL roster.

Just this year we’ve seen guys like Luke Falk, Trevor Siemian, Brian Hoyer, and Matt Moore take snaps in NFL games. Heck, Chad Henne had a gig with the Chiefs before getting hurt in the preseason. Chad Henne!

And just last year the Buffalo Bills called on Derek Anderson to start for them even though he had been out of the league. Derek Anderson!

The number of brutally awful QBs to take snaps in NFL games since Kaepernick has been out is both laughable and sad.

Kaepernick is better than all of those players mentioned, without a doubt. So stop with the noise that he stinks. He doesn’t. He could easily be a backup QB in the league and help out when necessary.

But now the NFL wants him to jump through more hoops for something that feels like it will give the league a chance to say “Hey, we gave him a shot!” and then be able to go to sleep at night thinking that they really did try their best when we all know they didn’t.

Kaepernick reportedly got around $10 million to settle his collusion grievances against the NFL last March. He has an endorsement deal with Nike that is probably giving him some good money, so financially he should be OK.

It’s just a shame we’ve come to this.

I hope he goes out and crushes his workout and lands a spot on a team.

But this opportunity has an icky feel to it. One that will likely end with Kaepernick still out of the league.

Which is all the more reason why he should tell the NFL to take a hike.

He’s better than they are.

Tuesday’s biggest winner: Geno Smith.

The Seahawks backup QB went viral late Monday night and all day Tuesday because of how he called heads during Monday night’s game with the 49ers. Some people swore they heard tails. Others, who are on the right side of this, said he said heads. But either way, Geno Smith, who explained why he called heads, was a talking point after a big game and not because he did something wrong. Which is a big win for the QB.

Quick hits: Cheating Astros?… Smart moves for Celtics… Rams need to move Goff… And more!

– This video of the Astros appearing to cheat during a game in 2017 is not a good look for the Astros.

– Brad Stevens and the awesome Marcus Smart have saved the Celtics so far this season, says our Mike Sykes.

– Steven Ruiz explains why the Rams might need to trade Jared Goff away in order to save themselves.

– James Holzhauer was back on Jeopardy! on Tuesday night… and here’s how he did.

(Follow me on Twitter at @anezbitt. It might change your life. Just don’t tell me about your fantasy team.)

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