According to a report from Pro Football Talk, new documents about Colin Kaepernick’s playing ability shows that coaches think he could be a starting quarterback. Bolstering his claim that the NFL ignored him based on his politics, not his playing ability.
Claims from a source inside the NFL to Pro Football Talk, say that the league’s free-agency evaluation reports insist that Colin Kaepernick is a good enough player to be a starting QB. In fact, the documents reportedly show that today, even after he has been out of play for an entire season, Kaepernick is rated as a possible starter, Sporting News reported.
If true, the report would tend to undermine claims by some owners and coaches that Kaepernick has been passed over based on football-only reasons. The former San Francisco 49er and original anthem protester, has charged that the NFL “colluded” in secret and “coordinated” amongst each other to keep him out of the league. He has remained unsigned since he turned free agent at the end of the 2016 season.
Still, despite these alleged internal report, documents to which Kaepernick and his counsel surely have access, the “collusion” claim is not a lock.
As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio noted, the question becomes, “whether Kaepernick and his lawyers can prove coordination among the teams and/or through the league office in connection with the decision to steer clear of Kaepernick based on his role at the forefront of protests that occurred during the national anthem.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.