Only the Las Vegas Raiders know if Colin Kapernik is still good enough to play quarterback in the NFL.
Kaepernick is rehearsing for the Raiders on Wednesday. This was his first legal trial in years. He has not appeared in a match since the 2016 season, when he started 11 games for a team with two wins from San Francisco.
He was cut off in early 2017 and has not attracted much interest since, at least in part because of his decision to kneel while playing the national anthem this season.
Is he still 34 years old, capable? The attackers do not say.
“We will only talk about the people who are on our team,” said coach Josh McDaniels, echoing the old policies of the New England Patriots, where McDaniels twice served as Bill Belichick’s right-hand man. “… We don’t really comment on the assessments we made or what they looked like, how they didn’t look like, strengths and weaknesses, things like that.”
It makes sense. Why provide a rating for a player who is still free to sign elsewhere at the moment?
That doesn’t mean Copernicus didn’t answer some questions on Wednesday, some of them are grumpy, and some of them may be important in his quest to play football again.
The first is that he really wants to return to the NFL. Honestly or not, there was a perception among some in the league that Kapernik was happy with his life after football, and although he often said he wanted to continue playing, his motivation was not complete.
NFL teams, at least in part because of his political activism, have shown little interest in even trying it out.
Colin Kapernik has not been an effective quarterback in his last few seasons in the NFL, so there is still a lot of skepticism about his abilities. But his desire must no longer be questioned. (Photo by Harry How / Getty Images)
Kaepernick’s last days in San Francisco were far from his peak in 2012 and 2013, when he led the 49ers to the playoffs. He was never a great pass, his game relied on his ability to run. As this began to fade, so did his overall game. In his last two seasons, he failed to complete 60 percent of his passes and needed a bunch of surgeries.
However, given the annual parade of average quarterbacks to meet every week and even start due to an injury at the end of the season, there was no doubt that his exclusion from the league was not just based on performance.
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However, Kaepernick failed to convince anyone to give him a chance, and the concept that he “really doesn’t want to play” became easy for NFL teams.
This was especially clear on November 12, 2019, when the NFL organized a training session for him in front of all the teams that wanted to send a representative.
Kaepernick withdrew from the Atlanta session just 30 minutes earlier, expressing concern that it was closed to the public and the refusal the NFL wanted to sign. He then moved it to another part of the city, with his own film crew.
Even if Kaepernick’s concerns were justified when looking for work, the employer holds the cards. As long as you don’t want anything illegal, you usually have to do what they want. If they want you to wear a suit, you wear a suit. Maybe if you have enough talent, it doesn’t matter. Kapernik was no longer doing that.
The rehearsal was a disaster. Kaepernick looked like he could fly, as he rose high to head the ball. This was seen by some in the league as just a frivolous publicity stunt by someone he found difficult to work with. Again, who knows if that’s true, but that’s how the NFL accepted it.
Well, maybe he really wants to play. Maybe he always did. Or maybe things have changed. Whatever it was, training with the Raiders was typical of how the system worked. That alone should turn some chapters in the NFL. Or at least make an excuse to ignore it from the table.
Kaepernick also looks pretty ready to be a backup. Of course, he would like to start. But every player should want that. His desire to try out for Las Vegas suggests that he is not waiting for a guaranteed job.
Derek Carr is the established starter in Vegas. The three-time Pro Bowler has not missed a game since 2017 and led the Raiders to the playoffs before the season. In April, he signed a three-year extension worth $ 121.5 million.
Kapernik knew all this. He knew that, with the exception of a training camp for an almost miraculous job winner (if he even signed), the Raiders were interested in him as a backup.
He tried, though.
If nothing else, maybe some other poor quarterback team sees it in a new light. Or maybe someone decides to take a second look at a person who can still bring pop talent to the list.
Maybe Vegas is signing it. Or maybe I’ll try somewhere else.
It’s all far from Copernicus ever returning to the NFL, but no matter what happened during the test, Wednesday was still a potentially significant day for the quarterback.
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