Colin Kaepernick hasn’t played a snap since the 2016-2017 season.
In addition to his mediocre quarterback play, he used the NFL as a public platform to protest the national anthem, and teams just haven’t felt inspired to sign him on since.
But the NFL just might be conspiring to get him back in the league very soon.
The Oakland Raiders made a huge splash with their newest hire—Super Bowl winning and former coach Jon Gruden.
After a tumultuous and upsetting year (many had the Raiders pegged as Super Bowl contenders at the beginning of the season), Jack Del Rio and most of the coaching staff had to be let go.
That’s when Raiders’ owner Mark Davis turned to his old friend Jon Gruden to see if he had any interest in coaching again for his former team—a “whale” Davis had been trying to catch for many years.
Finally the timing and money was right. Gruden said yes and he’s now the highest paid NFL coach ever— receiving a 10 year contract for $100 million to carry the Raiders to their new home in Las Vegas, Nevada.
But following Gruden’s hire, there was an investigation into whether the Raiders had violated the Rooney Rule, a rule which requires teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football positions.
Remember, Davis had been trying to lure Gruden back for years and they may have come to an agreement before interviewing USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin and Raiders tight end coach Bobby Johnson.
Following the investigation, the NFL announced the Rooney Rule had been upheld, but now rumors are spreading that the NFL let the Raiders off the hook intentionally.
And it’s all because they want the Raiders to hire Kaepernick.
As has been discussed, the Raiders hired Jon Gruden, and many in league believe Raiders didn’t comply with Rooney Rule. 2/
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 23, 2018
Here is the interesting part. I’m told the league office told the Raiders (paraphrasing): we looked out for you on the Rooney rule, now help us by signing Kaepernick, and helping to end the collusion case. 4/
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 23, 2018
Lots of you scratch my back, homeboy, I’ll scratch yours. The league is a highly political machine and this has become a political issue. 6/
— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) January 23, 2018
So the NFL looked the other way and trusted the Raiders to return the favor.
But Derek Carr is the starting quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, right?
In fact, Carr is reportedly a major reason why Gruden wanted to come back.
So if Carr remains the starting quarterback—and there is zero reason to think he wouldn’t—then that would leave Kaepernick as a backup. Again.
But Kaepernick could be decent insurance for Gruden.
Carr has proven to be injury prone, suffering a broken fibula and three broken bones in his back in just a little over a year.
But the major question is would Kaepernick even take an offer from the Raiders as backup?
They would likely offer him somewhere around $2 million and that’s it. Would it really be worth all this trouble just to get him back on the bench?