Colin Kaepernick to Workout With Las Vegas Raiders - Report

Colin Kaepernick won the 2013 NFC championship, in just his ninth start in the league. Only a few years later, after protesting police violence during the national anthem, he was out of the league completely.

Colin Kaepernick will finally be given another shot to show an NFL team what he is capable of. ESPN and Yahoo Sports are reporting that the controversial quarterback will be brought in for a workout with the Las Vegas Raiders on Wednesday, his first NFL opportunity in years.

The news comes a month after Raiders owner Mark Davis said publicly that he believes Kaepernick deserves a chance to be on an NFL team again.

Kaepernick, now 34, last played during the 2016 season for the San Francisco 49ers. That same year, he made headlines for kneeling during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice. The political action was controversial at the time, a perception that was not helped by the NFL issuing confusing policies on what was allowed during the national anthem. Though countless players in the NFL and other professional sports leagues joined Kaepernick in his protest, he became the subject of intense ire, including from then-President Donald Trump.

Although Kaepernick had a good individual performance that season, the 49ers struggled to a 2-14 record and cut him in the offseason. Despite having led his team to the Super Bowl just a few years earlier, Kaepernick never landed on another team. In 2017, Kaepernick accused the NFL of colluding against him because of his political speech and sued the league.

In 2019, the NFL organized a workout for Kaepernick and invited all 32 teams, but that fell apart after Kaepernick, suspicious of the NFL’s intentions, canceled the workout less than an hour before it was set to begin. Some time later, Kaepernick and co-plaintiff Eric Reid settled their suit against the NFL for a reported $10 million.

Through all this time, Kaepernick has never stopped working out and has been steadfast in his goal of someday returning to an NFL field. This offseason, he has been working out with NFL receivers and he put on a throwing exhibition during halftime at a Michigan spring game.

“I can help make you a better team, I can help you win games,” Kaepernick told a reporter after being asked if he had a message to NFL teams. “To the teams that have questions, more than anything, I would say, I’d love to come in for a workout, I’d love to sit down with you and have that conversation about how I can make you a better team.”

Kaepernick also stated that he knows that he likely will have to start as a backup, but has confidence that he has what it takes to be a starter in the NFL again. Now he gets a chance with an owner that has consistently defended him.

The Raiders currently have Derek Carr under center, and it is unlikely that Kaepernick will unseat him. Carr had an above average year, throwing for 23 touchdowns to 14 interceptions while posting a 93.96 QB rating in a season the Raiders went 10-7 and made the playoffs. Carr also just signed a three-year $121.5 million contract extension.

Below Carr on the depth chart, the Raiders currently have four-year veteran Nick Mullens, three-year veteran Jarrett Stidham who has never started a game, and undrafted rookie Chase Garbers. None of the Raiders backup quarterbacks were on the Raiders’ roster last year.

NFL teams most commonly carry three quarterbacks on their roster, with a fourth usually sitting on the practice squad. If Kaepernick can prove to Raiders GM Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels that he is more valuable to the team than two of those quarterbacks, he will have a good shot at getting a roster spot.

“I believe in Colin Kaepernick,” Davis said in an episode of ‘Race in America: A Candid Conversation.’ “He deserves every chance in the world to become a quarterback in the National Football League. I still stand by it. If our coaches and general manager want to bring him in or want him to be the quarterback on this team, I would welcome him with open arms.”