Colin Kaepernick to work out for Seattle Seahawks
Free-agent quarterback to work out with Seattle, NFL Network reports
Pete Carroll said Seahawks are looking at Kaepernick, RG III and others
Free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick will work out with the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday. The NFL Network reported Wednesday that Kaepernick is one of several signal-callers the Seahawks are scouting as they search for a back-up for incumbent starter Russell Wilson.
Seattle head coach Pete Carroll said last week that Kaepernick and Robert Griffin III were two quarterbacks the team is considering.
Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett said the 29-year-old, who played for the San Francisco 49ers last year, was the “perfect fit” for the Seahawks. Kaepernick led the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII and to the NFC championship game the following season, where they lost to Seahawks.
But his refusal to stand for the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial injustice became the NFL’s biggest storyline of last season. He’s said he will stand for the anthem next year since his objective for the protest, to start a nationwide debate, has largely been achieved.
Kaepernick opted out of his 49ers contract earlier in March, but is still a free agent, having garnered little interest from teams around the league. Some, including Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, have alleged that Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL teams becuase of his protest.
“It has nothing to do with football. You can see that,” Sherman said on ESPN’s First Take in March.
“It’s difficult to see (why Kaepernick is unsigned) because he’s played at such a high level, and you see guys, quarterbacks, who have never played at a high level being signed by teams. So it’s difficult to understand,” Sherman said. “Obviously he’s going to be in a backup role at this point. But you see quarterbacks, there was a year Matt Schaub had a pretty rough year and got signed the next year. So it has nothing to do with football. You can see that. They signed guys who have had off years before.”
Kaepernick completed 59.2% of his passes, averaged 6.8 yards per attempt and threw 16 touchdowns with four interceptions in 12 games for the 49ers last season.
Trevone Boykin, the former TCU quarterback who was signed by the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2016, served as Wilson’s backup last season, but was never called into action as a starter despite three separate injuries to Wilson.
Boykin was arrested on misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession and public intoxication in March and subsequently arrested for a potential probation violation, creating the vacancy that could represent Kaepernick’s avenue back into football.
