If Jay Cutler had not agreed to sign a one-year deal with the Miami Dolphins, the franchise reportedly would not have turned to Colin Kaepernick.
According to Craig Mish of SiriusXM Radio, Christian Ponder would have been the guy the Dolphins would have looked to instead. Furthermore, he reports that Miami never really strongly considered Kaepernick.
The Dolphins did at least reportedly mull over the possibility as insurance during the early hours after Ryan Tannehill’s injury. Though, we’ve discussed in a bit of detail why Cutler was the right choice over Kaepernick, which you can read about here.
However, this report is a bit eye-opening. Ponder is a former first-round bust of the Minnesota Vikings. Since being ruled out as their franchise quarterback years ago, Ponder has bounced around the past two seasons, signing with the Oakland Raiders, Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers 2015-16. In that time, he has not played a single down of regular-season action.
All that to say that Ponder has not thrown a pass in an NFL game since the 2014 season.
In fact, last season when Blaine Gabbert stunk up the joint, Chip Kelly ended up playing Kaepernick over Ponder. He did a darn good job, throwing 16 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
We’ll let you, the reader, read into why Ponder would have been the guy over Kaepernick, if Cutler had decided to stick with the booth this season. Thankfully for the Dolphins, Cutler did sign, and they won’t have to walk down that road.