Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports takes an expansive look at a myriad of reasons why the 49ers are likely to trade QB Colin Kaepernick, who has reportedly requested permission to seek a deal out of San Francisco, this offseason.
The first of which is the simple fact that Kaepernick is rehabbing from offseason surgery and is is unlikely to pass physical anytime soon.
Beyond that, La Canfora mentions that the 49ers actually hurt his trade value last year by benching him mid-season in favor of Blaine Gabbert.
The real problem for the 49ers is that even with a number of teams in need of quarterbacks, most of them have more appealing options that don’t require them to take on Kaepernick’s contract and part with draft compensation in the process.
La Canfora expects the Jets to re-sign Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Redskins to tag Kirk Cousins, and the Eagles either re-sign Sam Bradford or target Chase Daniel in free agency.
The Browns and Texans may both prefer to draft a prospect to develop long-term, even though La Canfora could see Houston possibly having interest if Kaepernick were released.
The Broncos are reportedly focused on re-signing Brock Osweiler and preventing him from becoming a free agent.
With Kaepernick’s contract being as high as it is, La Canfora rules out any team where he’d be a back.
According to La Canfora, that leaves the division rival Rams as the only team who might be willing to trade for Kaepernick. However, even with the amount of cap space the Rams have to work, La Canfora still thinks it would be stretch for them to acquire Kaepernick rather than sign a guy like Robert Griffin III or draft someone.
Kaepernick, 28, is entering the third year of his seven-year, $126.97 million contract that included $61 million guaranteed and stands to make a base salary of $13.9 million for the 2016 season.
While those numbers are impressive on their own, the contract is essentially a pay-as-you-go agreement that includes ways for San Francisco to walk away with limited repercussions, as long as Kaepernick is healthy.
The April 1 first is especially important in regards to Kaepernick, as his base salary becomes guaranteed for the 2016 season at that point.
According to OverTheCap.com, trading Kaepernick would free up $8,493,493 in available cap space and create $7,397,260 in dead money.
In 2015, Kaepernick threw for 1,615 yards while completing 59.3 percent of his passes to go along with six touchdowns and five interceptions over the course of eight games. He also added 228 yards rushing and a touchdown.
We’ll have more regarding Kaepernick’s future with the 49ers as the news is available.
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
This article sounds rather ignorant. First of all the injuries were the only reason Kap struggled(besides the horrible OL). He simply could not continue because of his 3 bad injuries that he tried to play through, that all required surgeries. He will be great with a good OL and if he is healthy.
And as far as his contract is concerned, it is a great team friendly contract that would actually make GM’s around the League very happy to have him at such a cheap cost.