QUINTIN JAMES
Staff Writer
Week One of the NFL came and went. A lot of things happened in the league but one thing was evident: the quarterback play was horrible and mediocre at best for a few teams. For the past few years, the NFL has made the league more quarterback friendly with rules and penalties to appease to viewers looking to see more offense from quarterbacks.
The only problem about this is that the quarterback play in today’s NFL is getting worse and worse. In Week One, multiple teams looked like they could use a quarterback. In the offseason, many teams with quarterback issues tried to stall these issues by signing cheap, ineffective quarterbacks.
With a relatively “weak” quarterback draft class coming in, teams rushed to find free agent quarterbacks in hopes of grabbing a quarterback in the 2018 draft. One quarterback who was not contacted or signed to any roster was Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick sat last year during the national anthem in a preseason game and then later kneeled as a peaceful protest against police brutality towards people of color. After the first game, he explained his reason for the protest and started taking strides to achieve his goal to help out everyone he said he was fighting for.
His act of kneeling during the national anthem triggered certain people the wrong way. People claimed he did this because he was the backup for the 49ers at the time and it was a way to get attention, while others said he was disrespecting the military by protesting the anthem.
People who agreed with Kaepernick made the argument that it was bigger than football and the problem he addressed was a real and important topic that is an issue in the country today. A few NFL players joined alongside Kaepernick at first and he also got support from a lot of people outside the sport.
As the season started and the 49ers—who were projected to be one of the worst teams in the NFL—started losing, Kaepernick was brought in as the starting quarterback and played pretty well given the circumstances of the team and the lack of talent at most skill positions.
In 12 games as the starter, Kaepernick threw for 2,241 yards, 16 touchdowns and four interceptions with a 90.7 passer rating. He also ran for 468 yards on 69 carries with two touchdowns. While he wasn’t going to win MVP, his performance was statically better than a good number of starting quarterbacks.
After the season, many speculated about Kaepernick’s future. He was in a contract year and re-negotiated his deal during the season to be a free agent early before the 49ers cut him in the offseason. Many teams such as the Jets, Texans, Colts, Bears and others were looking for either starting quarterbacks or QBs to play a few games while the starter was ready to come back and play.
As the offseason moved along, interest in Kaepernick was little to none. At first the excuse was that he was looking for too much money and he didn’t deserve the contract he was looking for. As backups like Mike Glennon got signed as starters for upwards to 18 million per year, people wondered if money was the reason Kaepernick was unsigned. Even after reports came out that Kaepernick did not ask for a ton of money and didn’t care if he was starting or not, he was still not gaining any interest from teams. While this was happening, multiple quarterbacks such as Dan Orlovsky, who led the 2008 Lions to a 0-16 record, got signed to deals.
People mentioned the fact that backup quarterbacks have to fit the system of the starter to get signed as a way of explaining why Kaepernick didn’t have a job, but as the offseason went on, quarterbacks like Ryan Fitzpatrick and Mark Sanchez signed with teams that didn’t fit their style of play.
The fact that Kaepernick couldn’t even land a backup job made a lot of people wonder what was going on. His stats showed that he was still a capable starter and better than backups in the NFL.
Many owners dismissed the idea of signing Kaepernick and many believe that coaching and front office people were interested in him but resistance from ownership stopped anything serious from happening.
The pre-season this year showcased some disappointing play from many quarterbacks as many starters struggled and many new faces had a hard time getting used to the system. Many people were upset that Kaepernick didn’t have a job because the arguments on why he wasn’t signed didn’t add up.
Players across the league like Richard Sherman, Eric Reid and Martellus Bennett spoke out about the fact that Kaepernick was unsigned. Many players kneeled or sat for the anthem this year in the preseason and in Week One. Even if he wasn’t on the team, his impact is still being felt in the NFL.
The quarterbacks’ performance in Week One showed that maybe teams needed to give Kaepernick a call in the offseason. Josh McCown led the Jets offense to a total of 12 points, Colts backup Scott Tolzien struggled mightily against the Rams before being pulled away being down 37-3 and Tom Savage got benched at halftime at home against the Jaguars 19-0.
Kaepernick’s national anthem peaceful protest being the reason he isn’t employed is odd because many teams could use him at the moment. Owners trying to appease part of their fanbase who disagreed with Kaepernick’s protest now are upsetting fans in support of Kaepernick because no one wants to answer any questions.
If he’s good enough to play, which a lot of people think he is, he should be on a team right now.
If it makes your team better, you should consider it, and some teams are doing a disservice to their players and fans by potentially sacrificing wins in order to send a message or keep a portion of their fans happy.