Anyone who has argued that Colin Kaepernick remains a free agent simply because he is not a good enough football player must have cringed watching Week 1. The quarterback play across the NFL was horrendous as a whole, and Richard Sherman has no problem calling it like he saw it.
In his weekly video segment for The Players’ Tribune, Sherman said he is expecting to be asked about Kaepernick with the Seahawks set to take on the 49ers. He decided to get ahead of the questions by noting how poorly some quarterbacks performed last weekend.
For @RSherman_25, there’s no doubt why Colin Kaepernick is unsigned.
(Created on the Galaxy S8) @SamsungMobileUS pic.twitter.com/9HrrQV74ZU
— The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) September 14, 2017
“Of course (Kaepernick) deserves a job,” Sherman said. “You saw the quarterback play throughout the league and it was terrible. What happened to Indianapolis — you saying they couldn’t use Kaepernick? That’s crazy talk.
“But you know it’s unfortunate that a man is unemployed right now who’s a pretty good ball player, won his fair share of ball games and there are less talented guys employed because they didn’t stand up for a cause.”
Sherman is one of the most outspoken players in football, so it’s no surprise he took aim at his peers. And he’s not wrong. 10 quarterbacks posted a QB rating of 72.9 or worse in Week 1. Granted, that group included Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Joe Flacco, Kirk Cousins, Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton. No one is going to argue that Kaepernick deserves a job over those players, but what about, let’s say, Scott Tolzien and Josh McCown?
Tolzien completed just 9-of-18 passes for 128 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. The Indianapolis Colts were a disaster, and the 30-year-old veteran was one of the biggest reasons why. You can argue all day that Kaepernick doesn’t fit the Colts’ system, but at what point does the player become more important than the system?
We have heard some asinine reasons for why no teams have reached out to Kaepernick. The system argument may be true for some teams, but it’s tough to disagree with Sherman when you see what happened across the league in Week 1.
