With the 2016 NFL draft rapidly approaching, it’s becoming abundantly clear that both the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos are going to be movers and shakers during the annual event in Chicago next week.
Flush with 12 picks and a quarterback in Colin Kaepernick that’s clearly on the trade block, San Francisco has an opportunity to move up and down the board as it sees fit.
Meanwhile, picking at 31st overall, the Broncos find themselves in an unenviable position at quarterback.
Not only is the team currently relying on Mark Sanchez as its starting quarterback, the two blockbuster trades that have taken place over the past week-plus puts the team in a bad spot to select a top-end quarterback come draft time.
With the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles now dead set on adding quarterbacks with the first two picks, the draft’s third-best signal caller, Paxton Lynch, just saw his value increase a great deal.
In short, Denver might be forced to go with the fourth or fifth-best quarterback prospect should it stand pat at 31.
This would normally lead us to believe that trade talks between San Francisco and Denver surrounding Kaepernick might be heating up.
Not so fast.
Broncos beat writer Mike Klis is offering up a surprising report on what have become stalled talks between the two sides:
“Kaepernick reported to the 49ers offseason program on April 4 and there has been little movement on his proposed trade talks since.”
As Klis indicated, the primary issue here is Kaepernick’s contract. Denver is said to be offering him a new deal at $7 million per season, something the quarterback has reportedly balked at.
Complicating things further here, Denver met with the recently released Brian Hoyer on Wednesday. He could be brought in to compete with Sanchez for the starting job, completely taking Denver out of the Kaepernick sweepstakes.
From a 49ers perspective, one thing is abundantly clear. The team has no reason to actually move Kaepernick at this point. While he’s demanded a trade through his agents, he’s still under contract.
With Jared Goff and Carson Wentz now highly unlikely to be on the board when San Francisco picks at seven, the best case-scenario here would be Kaepernick competing with Blaine Gabbert for the starting job.
All this seems fine and dandy, but things could easily jump start once the draft begins next week.
If Denver loses out on Hoyer and finds itself having to potentially reach for a quarterback in the first round, it might go back to the drawing board with Kaepernick and the 49ers.