With the Colin Kaepernick situation set to come to a head at some point soon, multiple reports are coming out of San Francisco indicating that the 49ers already have a deal in place to send the enigmatic quarterback to the Denver Broncos.
The primary hold up here is Kap’s unwillingness to restructure his contract in order to help facilitate a trade to Denver.
Now comes this from ESPN’s Dianna Marie Russini:
From the start, Chip Kelly REALLY didn't want him…hope this works out for all! https://t.co/mO2LYwrDCz
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 2, 2016
This is somewhat of a surprise. Both Kelly and the 49ers have publicly expressed an interest in Kaepernick returning to San Francisco. In fact, there’s something to the idea that the head coach chose Northern California after being fired by the Philadelphia Eagles in part due to Kaepernick’s presence on the roster.
What we do know is that anything coming out of this organization’s headquarters in Santa Clara has to be taken with a grain of salt. Whether it’s due to the front office’s ego or something else, San Francisco has rarely been up front with the media.
Instead, the MO has been to leak information through certain sources in the media.
If that’s the case here, one has to wonder if Kaepernick’s request of a trade has more to do with him saving face than anything else.
If San Francisco made it clear behind the scenes that he didn’t figure into the future, the trade request would then make sense.
Kelly and the 49ers start their off-season activities on Monday, at which point Kaepernick will receive a $400,000 workout bonus to go with the $11.9 million base salary he saw guaranteed last week.
Reading between the lines a bit here, it seems like something could get done between now and then. That’s only magnified by the fact that it appears Kelly himself would rather move on from Kaepernick.