Washington Redskins head coach Jay Gruden said during the week that the team discussed the possibility of signing Colin Kaepernick in the wake of injuries to Alex Smith and Colt McCoy, but those discussions never got to the point where they reached out to the quarterback or his agent.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, neither the Redskins nor any other NFL team has tried to contact Kaepernick to discuss signing him or bringing him in for a workout. Gruden said this week that Washington talked about bringing in Kaepernick but there would have been “a greater possibility” of him being an option if the injuries to Smith and Colt McCoy happened before the season.
Gruden added that Washington would have to change its offense too much to cater to Kaepernick’s skillset, which is something we have heard from other teams in the past. He insisted the team took nothing but football into consideration when opting to pass on the 31-year-old.
“When you’re talking about a backup quarterback this late in the game you want someone with a similar skill set to the quarterback you have,” Gruden said. “Not that Colin can’t do some of the things we’ve talked about, but we want someone with a little more familiarity.”
The Redskins ended up signing Mark Sanchez as a backup behind Colt McCoy, and they added Josh Johnson after McCoy suffered an injury in last week’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Kaepernick’s agent said recently that two NFL teams had expressed interest in signing the former San Francisco 49ers star, but that seems like it was just an attempt to drum up interest. Kaepernick has almost certainly played his last snap in the NFL at this point.
