While there hasn’t been much recent movement on the trade front surrounding a potential deal that would send Colin Kaepernick to the Denver Broncos, the upcoming NFL draft will present yet another opportunity to get something done.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports noted that it’s highly unlikely Kaepernick’s relationship with the San Francisco 49ers has changed in recent weeks, which will make the team more likely to deal the quarterback.
“I still doubt that come May the 49ers really have this quarterback hanging around at OTAs, when he doesn’t want to be there, and ownership really doesn’t want him there, either,” La Canfora reported. “Literally nothing at all has occurred to in any way repair this broken marriage, and I wouldn’t anticipate much movement on the trade front until the eve of the draft, or during the draft itself.”
From a pure football perspective, this all makes sense. Kaepernick and the 49ers obviously don’t have a great relationship. Meanwhile, the defending champion Broncos are still in the market for a quarterback.
From that end, it’s completely logical that Kaepernick would want out of San Francisco and that a team like the Broncos would be his desire.
It also makes sense that Denver, who lost both Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler during the offseason, would be interested in Kaepernick. The draft is the perfect opportunity to reignite those talks, right?
Yes, but money is the other side of this argument. Kaepernick would likely need to accept a healthy pay cut, something he doesn’t seem willing to do.
Somehow, the Broncos would need to clear a lot of cap space or talk the 49ers into paying a sizable chunk of someone’s salary who wouldn’t even be on their roster.
The draft may provide an opportunity for the two teams to talk more. But the financial end of this is still a major hurdle. And frankly, nothing that happens on draft day will change that.
Unless something significant changes on that end, we can certainly expect talks between the two teams to happen. Though, nothing will materialize until something changes from a financial aspect here.