Colin Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since leaving the San Francisco 49ers at the end of the 2016 season, but there may have been at least one interested party in his services a few years back.
Former Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson said Friday that he had sought to bring Kaepernick in as his starting quarterback in 2017, but was overruled.
“I wanted him,” Jackson told Jeff Schudel of the News-Herald. “It just didn’t work out. Obviously, those things do have to work from a finance, draft, whatever all that is. And that wasn’t my decision.
“I’ve known Colin. When I was with the Raiders, we were going to draft him when I was there. So, obviously he’d been a really good player in the league. He had tremendous success. He is a guy who has stood for something. I think everybody is seeing exactly where he was coming from … I always thought Colin deserved an opportunity in this league, but he has to want to play. If he really wanted to play, I think he would have a chance again.”
The Browns ended up going 0-16 with DeShone Kizer at quarterback in 2017. At the time, there were rumors that Kaepernick wanted to play for them, but nothing came of it. It certainly wouldn’t have been any worse from a football perspective than what actually happened. Given the rumors about Kaepernick being blackballed, it’s certainly interesting to hear Jackson’s take on it. It’s also not the first time Jackson wanted a quarterback but Cleveland management had other ideas.
