Seahawks take a knee after considering Colin
Colin Kaepernick remains on the NFL’s untouchables list, for now.
The Seattle Seahawks, the only team to bring in the former 49ers quarterback for a visit since the start of free agency, announced on Monday they’ve elected to sign veteran Austin Davis instead.
The move comes with little surprise as head coach Pete Carroll told reporters last Friday that the team was opting to pass on signing Kaepernick.
“Colin has been a fantastic football player and he’s going to continue to be. At this time we didn’t do anything with it but we know where he is and who he is and we had a chance to understand him much moreso,” Carroll said.
Davis, who visited the team on the same day as Kaepernick, has played in just 13 games during his five-year career, completing 62 percent of his passes while throwing 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 378 attempts.
Kaepernick, who once rivaled Russell Wilson for top quarterback honors in the NFC, has a similar style of play to Wilson and would seemingly be an easier fit in Seattle’s offense should Wilson go down. During his six years in San Francisco, Kaepernick rushed for 2,300 yards and 13 touchdowns in 375 attempts. In that time, Wilson rushed for 2,689 yards and 13 touchdowns in 483 attempts. Kaepernick burst onto the scene in 2012 after replacing Alex Smith as the 49ers’ starting quarterback with seven games left in the season. He finished the year 5-2 and led San Francisco to an NFC title before losing to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.
His success was short lived, and after failing to make the playoffs in 2014 Kaepernick would go on to lose the starting job to Blaine Gabbert in 2015.
He gained national attention last season after deciding to kneel during the pregame national anthem in protest of minority oppression in the U.S. Despite saying he would stand during the anthem next season, Kaepernick hasn't come close to finding a new NFL home.
Giants owner John Mara told TheMMQB.com last week that the team didn’t consider singing Kaepernick this offseason, and that the organization received mail from fans stating how angry they would be if the team did.