Yesterday, we pointed out the mildly surprising news that the San Francisco 49ers planned to have Colin Kaepernick back next season. This news became less surprising when we found out today that the 49ers had an extra $12 million in cap space to carry over from last season.
Today, comes the biggest surprise of all: Kaepernick’s agents have requested permission from the 49ers to seek a trade.
Source: Kaepernick’s agents have requested permission from the team to seek a trade.
— Rand Getlin (@Rand_Getlin) February 25, 2016
Say what?
Just a couple of days ago it looked like Kaepernick would be begging a new team to take a chance on him. Now he wants to be traded away from the one team that we know has interest.
Earlier in the day, 49ers coach Chip Kelly made it clear he always planned to have Kaepernick on the team. “Our job is acquiring talent, not getting rid of talent,” he said. He also said that Kaepernick “wants to be here,” so apparently there has been a mix-up in communication somewhere along the way.
Is Kaepernick upset that he will have to compete with Blaine Gabbert for his starting position? That seems unlikely. Yes, he lost his starting spot to Gabbert last season, but he also battled injuries as well as an odd season of inconsistent leadership under Jim Tomsula. He couldn’t possibly view beating out Gabbert as a difficult task, could he?
There are really only two sensible reasons for Kaepernick wanting out of San Francisco.
One possible scenario is that Kaepernick has met Kelly and likes him about as much as his former players in Philadelphia did. That’s not hard to imagine, as Kelly has been a natural at alienating players since he joined the Eagles in 2013. Of further concern are the comments made by Evan Mathis, who said Kelly had a “never-evolving offense, vanilla offense that forced our own defense to play higher than normal play counts.”
Even if Kaepernick is a good fit for Kelly’s offense, which many people believe, that’s not going to matter if you’re miserable playing for the man.
Another possibility is that after being accused of having a poor work ethic and being lambasted for his lack of development for a good part of the last couple seasons, Kaepernick is simply dead set on getting a change of scenery.
That’s understandable on some level, but his options are going to be severely limited. Many of the teams that struggled in the passing game last season (Minnesota, Buffalo, Tennessee, to name three) already have young quarterbacks they are committed to moving forward with. Another (Dallas) is expecting to get its stud back, and yet another (Cleveland) is expected to fill that spot with a high draft pick.
Further complicating matters is this: What team will give up assets in a trade AND take on the $16 million cap hit to employ Kaepernick next season? It would take a team pretty desperate for a quarterback. The Houston Texans, perhaps, or maybe the Los Angeles Rams.
But no matter how you add it up, the most sensible place for Kaepernick next season is San Francisco, whether he likes that or not.
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