National Post (National Edition)
Qb-needy ’Skins snub Kaepernick
Team signs backup with long NFL layoff
Who needs Colin Kaepernick as an emergency backup quarterback behind Mark Sanchez, when — like the Washington Redskins did on Wednesday — you can instead sign a guy like Josh Johnson, who in the NFL:
❚ Hasn’t taken a snap since 2013;
❚ Hasn’t started a game since 2011;
❚ Has a career record as starter of 0-5;
❚ Has a terrible career touchdown-to-interception ratio of 5-to-10;
❚ Has a lowly career passer rating of 57.7;
❚ Has lost 10 fumbles and been sacked 17 times against just 177 pass attempts;
❚ And has failed to last more than a few hours, days, weeks or months since 2011 following tryouts with Cleveland, Cincinnati (twice), San Francisco (twice), both New York teams, Buffalo, Baltimore, Houston and Oakland?
Johnson puts the journey in journeyman. In that time he did score some pro football playing time — with the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League in 2012. And until the middle of this week he was the property of the San Diego Fleet of the yet-to-launch Alliance of American Football.
Yet the Redskins believe the 32-year-old Johnson would give the them a better chance to win than Kaepernick — and is a better fit in their offence than Kaepernick — should anything happen to Sanchez over the season’s final four weeks.
Bear in mind that Washington, at 6-6, is still very much alive in the hunt for both the NFC East division title and a conference wildcard playoff berth.
Thing is, the Redskins are about as quarterbackdesperate as any NFL team in recent years. Their starter this year, Alex Smith, was lost three Sundays ago to a broken leg. And his backup, Colt Mccoy, went down himself with a broken leg this past Sunday.
So Sanchez — who signed just two weeks ago — is the new Redskins’ starter. And of the QBS the club tried out to serve as Sanchez’s replacement earlier this week, Johnson won out.
Kaepernick didn’t so much as receive a call.
Collusion to keep the man who begat the anthemkneeling protests two years ago out of the league probably never will or can be proven, and might not even be a thing. Shared stupidity often explains perceived conspiracy in this world.
But, for the love of pigskin, Kaepernick surely deserves at least a look. From someone. If not a backup job. If not a starter’s job.
Hell, this past Sunday men named Jeff Driskel, Nick Mullens and Cody Kessler started NFL games, and guys named Tyler Bray, Matt Barkley, Mike Glennon, Tom Savage and Alex Tanney dressed as backups.
Redskins head coach Jay Gruden actually said the following with a straight face on Tuesday, in explaining why the club discussed the idea of signing Kaepernick but ultimately declined: Kap wasn’t a good fit in Washington’s offence, the offence originally designed for Alex Smith.
If you’ll recall, Kaepernick replaced Smith as starter in 2012 in San Francisco, in an offence originally designed for Smith.
So yeah.
My hunch — and you’ll probably never hear an NFL owner, GM or coach admit it — is it’s not so much signing Kaepernick that NFL teams fear. Rather, it’s the backlash they’d get for dumping him if he doesn’t work out.
❚ EX-RIVAL DEFENDS HIM: When Kaepernick was starting for the Niners, twice a year he’d face division archrival Seattle and Legion of Boom cornerback Richard Sherman.
Sherman now plays for the 49ers. On Wednesday he supported Kap in a ProFootballtalk.com podcast, in which he said the fact that Kaepernick is suing the league for collusion should be no obstacle to signing with any team.
“It’s disappointing … because there’s nothing legally stopping the teams from (doing so),” Sherman said.
“At first it was, ‘Colin Kaepernick’s stats weren’t good enough,’ or, ‘He stopped playing at a high level.’ And then you see some of the quarterbacks that (teams) picked up, and you’re like, well, you know, if you’re picking up Mark Sanchez he’s had some up-and-down years. Colt Mccoy’s the same way.
“Colin has played at a higher level than, I would say, any of those guys ever performed at the peak of their careers. You start to see stuff like that, and it’s almost like teams are purposefully making it obvious that, like, they’re keeping him out.”
Sherman added that Kaepernick did not commit a crime, nor put his hands on any man or woman. So it’s “insanely crazy that he deserves to be banned from our football league.”
❚ SHOULDER INJURY: Cam Newton admitted Wednesday that his right throwing shoulder — surgically repaired in the 2017 off-season — is indeed giving him problems at this point of the 2018 season. He didn’t rule out having post-season surgery for further repairs, ESPN. com reported.
“But at the end of the day,” Newton said, “I just know I’m healthy enough to play. I’m not going to let nothing hold me back from being able to help my team.”
The need to win this week, at Cleveland, is acute. The Panthers have lost four straight and are 6-6, in danger of falling to far behind in the NFC wild-card chase.