Colin Kaepernick held a workout in Georgia on Saturday that was separate from the one the NFL tried to organize for him, and NFL representatives ended up attending. One NFL executive who attended Kaepernick’s workout seemingly came away impressed.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, one NFL executive said Kaepernick’s arm remains “elite” and that the free agent quarterback threw the ball well.
After today’s workout in Atlanta, an NFL executive at Colin Kaepernick’s throwing session said his arm talent is “elite” and is the same as when he came out of college. He said that Kaepernick threw the ball well.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 16, 2019
This should come as no surprise. Kaepernick’s arm has always been strong, though arm strength is only one component of being a successful quarterback. Kaepernick was a bottom-tier NFL starter when he last played in the league. Even after three years of not playing in the NFL, there is little doubt that he is still better than the third-stringers and many backups currently in the league, with the upside of potentially being starter-caliber again.
The big question has always been whether teams independently decided not to sign the quarterback for their own reasons, or whether there was a league-wide directive telling teams not to sign the quarterback. A collusion lawsuit was supposed to explore that matter issue, but Kaepernick settled his grievance with the NFL rather than take it to court.
The next step is seeing whether teams follow up with greater interest in the form of more workouts or contract offers.
