49ers considering QBs, Kyle Shanahan says Colin Kaepernick isn't one of them

Let’s flash back to last week, when San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York was talking about Colin Kaepernick.

“It’s hard for me to see taking a knee – like, if you can come up with a community or society where taking a knee is a disrespectful act, like by all means show me,” York told Freakonomics Radio. “I feel like he tried to modify his position to be as respectful as possible during a very, very sacrosanct moment during a professional football game. And I think that the narrative sort of spun out of control.

“We had no negative conversations with other teams saying, ‘Don’t sign Colin.’ We wouldn’t do that with Colin. We wouldn’t do that with anybody.”

So York doesn’t have any problem with Kaepernick’s national anthem demonstration and wouldn’t say a bad word to any team about him. Yet, his own team needs a quarterback now that Jimmy Garoppolo is done for the season, and the 49ers are working out a lot of players who aren’t as good as Kaepernick. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said the team didn’t even discuss the possibility.

There might be some football-related reasons Kaepernick, who spent his entire NFL career with the 49ers, isn’t getting a free-agent workout with San Francisco. Yet, for a team that just publicly supported his cause, it’s weird they won’t consider him.

Kaepernick has better track record than other FA QBs

No matter what side of the argument you’re on, it should be easy to agree nobody on this list of quarterbacks the 49ers will work out (via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network) should thrill anyone: Tom Savage. Kellen Clemens. T.J. Yates and maybe Matt Moore. Moore wasn’t asked but it’s unclear if he’ll work out, Rapoport said. Nick Mullens was promoted from the practice squad.

Again, if you dislike Kaepernick taking a knee to bring attention to social causes, if you burned your Nikes when the shoe company gave him a commercial, that’s your right. But don’t insult anyone’s football intelligence by saying those quarterbacks listed above are better than Kaepernick.

The 49ers went to a Super Bowl with Kaepernick once. At 1-2, their season isn’t exactly over. Maybe Kaepernick wouldn’t help them. But it’s a bit odd they won’t even consider him.

49ers say Kaepernick doesn’t fit their offense

Shanahan was asked Monday if the team would consider Kaepernick, and Shanahan said there was no discussion about it. According to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area, Shanahan said the team discussed it last year and determined Kaepernick wasn’t the style of quarterback he wanted for his offense.

But Tom Savage is a good fit?

There are legitimate football questions about Kaepernick. He hasn’t played since the end of the 2016 season. That’s a lot of time to miss in the NFL. His supporters have probably overstated, given how it seems obvious why he isn’t being signed, how good of a quarterback he was his final few seasons. He was good, but inconsistent in many ways and probably a fringe NFL starter. We also don’t know specifically things like his salary demands. Considering the 49ers won’t even discuss the possibility of working him out, they might not know his salary demands either.

While Kaepernick was good but not great his last couple seasons with the 49ers, he was absolutely better than a lot of quarterbacks currently on NFL rosters. He is better than the quarterbacks the 49ers will work out. Like some other teams last season — notably the Texans and Packers — it seems the 49ers would rather punt the season than deal with the attention signing Kaepernick would bring.

Kaepernick has collusion grievance against NFL

Kaepernick has filed a grievance against the NFL, claiming collusion to keep him out (which, of course, seemed to end any small chance of him getting signed). That will be hard to prove. He’ll need some proof that teams or the league worked in concert to not sign him.

Just giving the arbitrator a list of names the 49ers will work out instead of even considering him probably wouldn’t count as evidence. But, like many quarterback decisions by multiple teams the past couple years, it’s pretty telling.

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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