Colin Kaepernick is still a free agent, which is somewhat of a surprise to San Francisco 49ers GM John Lynch.
During an interview with KNBR on Friday, Lynch said that Kaepernick had a deal in place that apparently fell through.
“(Kaepernick) was, in everyone’s mind in this league, very close to signing a deal with a team at a really good number and it fell through, apparently,” Lynch said.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio thinks this means that a GM was ready to sign Kaepernick, but perhaps ownership blocked the deal.
That could make sense, especially considering what Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman wrote on Friday. Freeman quoted an AFC GM who gave three reasons why Kaepernick may still be available. A few big reasons is that GMs dislike Kaepernick for protesting the national anthem and don’t want to sign him. Another is that they fear backlash for signing the QB.
The 49ers have signed Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley, so they aren’t rushing out to add more quarterbacks. But Lynch says they are open to adding him.
“Here we are with two quarterbacks, but like we said, we’re gonna look at every option. The likelihood of that happening has probably gone down significantly, but we’re not going to close our mind or our options on anyone, including him.”
We know that at least one team is still open to the possibility of having Kaepernick around.
As far as which team Kaepernick had a deal with that may have fallen apart, it’s possible it could have been the Jets given all the talks on both sides.
