Colin Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since January 1, 2017. He is still waiting on his next opportunity!
The 38-year-old claims to be better than a “good amount” of quarterbacks who are still in the league.
Should an NFL team want to sign him, Kaepernick is ready to go. Will the phone ring?
Colin Kaepernick had a promising start to his NFL career.
At 6-foot-4, 175 pounds, Colin Kaepernick received multiple scholarship offers out of John H. Pitman High School in Turlock, California. However, most of his offers were as a pitcher and his goal was to play football, not baseball. Only Nevada offered him a scholarship to play football. That singular opportunity ultimately led him to Reno in the Class of 2007.
Kaepernick went 31-16 during four years at Nevada. The Wolfpack went 13-1 during his senior season. Their quarterback, who was named as the WAC Offensive Player of the Year, threw for 3,022 yards and 21 touchdowns with eight interceptions and ran for 1,206 yards and 20 touchdowns in 2010.
The San Francisco 49ers traded up to draft Kaepernick with the No. 26 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. He was mostly used as a runner during the early portion of his rookie season. And then Alex Smith got hurt in 2012. A quarterback controversy began.
Kaepernick was eventually named as the starter for the postseason that year. He set the NFL single-game record for most rushing yards by a quarterback and became the third player in league history to run and pass for two touchdowns in the postseason during a win over the Packers in the Divisional game.
2013 was just as good. Kaepernick led the 49ers back to the Divisional Round of the playoffs with a regular season record of 12-4.
And then it all came crashing down.
Kaepernick went 11-24 during the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons to finish his career at 28-30 overall. He is mostly remembered for that one playoff game against Green Bay and, most notably, his decision to take a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice and police brutality.
Is the 38-year-old better than any of the current 32 starting quarterbacks?
Colin Kaepernick played his last NFL game on Jan. 1, 2017. The 49ers lost to the Seahawks by two.
As of this writing, it has been 9 years, 8 months, and 17 days since the final game of Kaepernick’s career. He received some interest from Seattle, Baltimore and Tennessee in 2017. Las Vegas hosted him for an official workout in 2022. Houston, Los Angeles and New York also kicked the tires at various points in time. Even the AAF and XFL offered him an opportunity.
Kaepernick decided to hold out for an NFL contract that never came. That doesn’t mean he isn’t ready if called upon!
The 38-year-old is still trying to make a comeback. He told NPR that he still wants to play in the NFL, told NBC that — even though he does not watch football anymore because he does not want to support the league that is blackballing him — he would love to step back onto the field and thinks he could do so today, and told Men’s Health that he is still training.
“I still train five days a week. I’m up at 4:30 in the morning doing my training before I go about the rest of my day. And maybe this goes a little bit back to me being a masochist and the dedication there, but I have to do everything that is in my control to make sure I am prepared. Whether that is training, whether that is making the right calls. I want to make sure that, what I have control over, I am showing up the best way possible there.”
Kaepernick does not watch the NFL but he keeps an eye on the stats to see which teams he should be calling. He also told US Weekly that he could outperform some of the 32 current starting quarterbacks in the league.
“It’s tough to say [exactly how many] because I haven’t been watching the games, but I will check the stat lines to see where quarterbacks are at. Based upon that, I think there’s a good amount.”
His cleats are by the door. Colin Kaepernick is ready to go when he gets the call.
Will the phone ring?