The interest in free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick has been lukewarm through the first week-plus of the new league year. There’s a lot of theories being thrown around as to why, but some will surely conclude it has to do with the Kaepernick-led national anthem protests from last season.
Either way, Kaepernick himself isn’t generating much buzz on the open market. He’s also highly unlikely to return to the San Francisco 49ers after the team signed Brian Hoyer earlier in March.
Now, talking about a wide array of different topics, new 49ers general manager John Lynch just broke some rather interesting news on the Northern California radio station KNBR.
“I don’t know what happened to that market (for Kaepernick) because when we added our second guy, at that time, I can just tell you, you learn things,” Lynch said (h/t SF Gate). “And he was in everyone’s mind in this league very close to signing a deal with a team at a really good number. And it fell through, apparently.”
We’re not entirely too sure what Lynch means by “you learn things.” That’s what we’d call a very broad statement from the general manager.
Though, the real news here is that Kaepernick was apparently close to signing with a team last week. Lynch also indicated that it would have been a good contract for the quarterback.
In some ways, this throws out the idea that Kaepernick himself has been blackballed for his off-field stances. On the other hand, it’s only one team. There really hasn’t been a market for the quarterback despite the fact that he compiled 18 total touchdowns compared to four interceptions for the 49ers last year.
What we do know here is that Kaepernick will not be returning to the 49ers. Lynch indicated as much by noting the signing of Matt Barkley in the above-mentioned quote.