If your team's QB is terrible, remember: Colin Kaepernick is still available
Houston Texans fans, bet you could use a Super Bowl-veteran quarterback right now. Indianapolis Colts faithful, you sure you want to put your hope in Scott Tolzien when there’s better out there? Bengals defenders, Browns pound, Jets tolerators … wouldn’t it be good to have a quarterback who at least brought a touch of excitement under center?
No, we’re not going to do this all season, but it’s still worth noting: Colin Kaepernick is still available, a quarterback without a job on a day when half a dozen quarterbacks with jobs looked far less than qualified for the gig. Consider:
• The Texans’ Tom Savage was so awful he got yanked halfway through the first game.
• The Colts’ Tolzien threw a pick-six on his very first throw of the season.
• The Bengals’ Andy Dalton suffered five sacks, threw four interceptions and had a quarterback rating of 28.4. You could get a better QB rating throwing treats to your dog.
And these guys are supposedly among the best 32 quarterbacks in the league. There’s another 64 or so in uniform behind them.
Look, we know all the football-based arguments against signing Kaepernick: he’s rusty, his skills have declined, he’s not a fit for existing offensive schemes, et cetera et cetera. (Give this a read for a thorough debunking of all the Kap-can’t-play-anymore myths.) You know full well why he’s not signed; his protests during the national anthem have rendered him radioactive. Which is certainly teams’ right; nobody owes Kaepernick a job. But as the season wears on and quarterbacks continue to flail, it’ll be interesting to see just how far teams are willing to go to avoid even giving him a look.
But if the very idea of Kaepernick taking the field makes your blood boil, heck, we’ll add this: Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel are still available too.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports and the author of EARNHARDT NATION, on sale now at Amazon or wherever books are sold. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
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