San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan believes he has an idea about why Colin Kaepernick remains a free agent, and it has nothing to do with the quarterback’s controversial political stances.
On Monday, Shanahan spoke about the upcoming draft and how it is more important to consider a team’s scheme when searching for quarterbacks than other players.
“If you bring in a quarterback who is the best when he’s a dual-threat and can do all those type of things, that affects an entire offense,” he said, per Grant Cohn of the Press Democrat. “That doesn’t just affect one guy. That’s a huge commitment to your entire team. So, when you bring in someone like that when you’re going to have to tinker the offense to fit one player, you’ve got to know you’re tinkering every single person on that offense too.”
Shanahan’s response prompted a question about Kaepernick and whether the coach feels he does not fit San Francisco’s offensive scheme. His response indicated he believes that is the case with Kaepernick and a lot of teams.
“When all your quarterbacks have different ways to be successful, which I’ve been in situations like that and you try to prepare them best, it does take a toll on your offense,” he said. “What are you trying to get good at? You can’t practice everything. You can’t be great at everything. You’ve kind of got to commit to something and do it over and over and over again and once the type of running game or drop-back game, you’re going to commit to one quarterback is completely different than the other, then that does affect your team.
“That’s why I think it can be harder when those type of guys are going through competitions and stuff and like that because even though you’re trying to find the best guy, by trying to be fair to those quarterbacks you’re also being unfair to a team. You don’t really know what direction you’re going.”
In other words, Shanahan believes Kaepernick has a unique skill set, and only teams who feature quarterbacks with that same skill set would be a fit for the 29-year-old.
It makes sense, but there are more than a few people — including some of Kaepernick’s former teammates — who feel the QB is being blackballed by NFL teams. In reality, it’s probably a little of both.
