Colin Kaepernick hates America, thus the left has predictably anointed him a hero.
Kaepernick has been honored with several awards and has received comparisons to figures like Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali.
As a result, it’s no surprise his name was the first mentioned after the Eagles suffered a catastrophic injury.
Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Carson Wentz tore his ACL during a win against the Los Angeles Rams. Wentz was arguably the frontrunner to win MVP, and had his team in good position to play in the Super Bowl for the first time since 2004-05.
Not long after the news of Wentz’s injury, people in the media were throwing Colin Kaepernick’s name around as a replacement.
From CBS Sports:
Whenever an NFL contender has lost its quarterback to a serious injury this season — from Ryan Tannehill to Aaron Rodgers to Deshaun Watson — Colin Kaepernick’s name has surfaced almost immediately as a possible replacement. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear Kaepernick’s name come up in the aftermath of Carson Wentz’s season-ending ACL injury. It also shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that the 11-2 Eagles reportedly aren’t interested in Kaepernick’s services.
On Monday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio both reported that the Eagles are not considering bringing in Kaepernick.
“Per a league source, the Eagles have shown no interest in Kaepernick, and they’re not currently expected to do so,” Florio wrote for PFT.
And here’s what Rapoport reported on NFL Network:
Ian Rapoport on Twitter
From the Aftermath: The #Eagles may need a QB, but no it won’t be Colin Kaepernick… even tho he’d drop his collusion lawsuit if it happened. https://t.co/SwWrrYe1Qj
That makes sense. Even though Kaepernick is a starting-caliber quarterback with an 88.9 career passer rating, he’s been out of football for almost a year now. To expect him to come in on Dec. 12 and learn a new offense on a new team and then lead the Eagles on a deep postseason run is expecting the impossible. The Eagles probably feel much more comfortable riding out the season with Nick Foles, who has been in the system all year long.
That doesn’t mean Foles is a better quarterback than Kaepernick. Kaepernick boasts more experience and upside than Foles. The timing just doesn’t really make sense for the Eagles to bring in Kaepernick as the starter. With that being said, if the Eagles wanted to bring in Kaepernick as Foles’ backup, that’d make a ton of sense. As it stands, Nate Sudfeld is the backup in Philadelphia. That’s not ideal.
Still, it seems unlikely to occur given everything that’s happened in the past year. After starting his protest against racial injustice last season by not standing up during the national anthem with the 49ers, Kaepernick has spent the offseason and season as an overly qualified free agent. Many prominent figures in the sports community have speculated that Kaepernick is being blackballed.
In October, Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL.
In addition to Kaepernick having been out of football for a year and not knowing the playbook, he’s a bad fit stylistically.
Eagles’ head coach Doug Pederson runs the timing-based West Coast Offense. Kaepernick has never been known as a rhythm dropback passer.
There’s also the locker room chemistry factor. Kaepernick has criticized Eagles’ defensive leader Malcolm Jenkins for freezing him out of Players’ Association negotiations, and he took issue with the $89 million the players got from the owners to go towards social justice activist causes.
Kaepernick is a terrible fit for the Eagles in every conceivable way, but the media are still holding out hope he will get a job.