Colin Kaepernick may not be finished in San Francisco, after all.
According to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Kaepernick met with the 49ers last week and the team expressed interest in bringing him back for 2016. Schefter says the “door is not closed” on Kaepernick staying right where he is in the near future.
That doesn’t mesh with everything we have heard since Kaepernick was benched, though it is possible the Niners had a change of heart. Kaepernick signed a six-year, $114 million contract with the team last year. However, they have until April 1 of each calendar year through 2018 to cut Kaepernick before that year’s salary becomes fully guaranteed. In that sense, it is basically like the 28-year-old is playing under a series of one-year deals.
Kaepernick’s base salary for 2016 is roughly $12 million, and he carries a salary cap hit of $16.7 million. He won’t be worth anything close to that if he plays the way he did this season, though the 49ers could give him a chance to prove himself one more time and/or restructure the deal to bring down his cap number.
We still think there’s a good chance Kaepernick will leave San Francisco, especially when you take into account what the team recently did with his jersey at its team store.
