NFL Notes: Colin Kaepernick, Ezekiel Elliott, Dave Gettleman

Colin Kaepernick

• Colin Kaepernick posted a video showing himself working out, saying he’s “still ready” to play in the NFL
• Kaepernick tweeted “5am. 5 days a week. For 3 years. Still Ready.”
• The video includes the number of days Kaepernick has been “denied” which is listed as 889.
• Kaepernick’s last game was Week 17 in 2016. The former quarterback settled a collusion grievance against the NFL in February. 

Ezekiel Elliott

Near the end of 2018 when discussing a contract extension for RB Ezekiel Elliott, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said the Rams deal for Todd Gurley would likely be their starting point. Now, though, Jones has changed his tune. 

“When a guy like Le’Veon Bell, who you can argue is better [than Gurley] goes to unfettered free agency and gets $13.5 [million per year], the market changed,” Jones said via Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News. “Am I backing up? I’m not backing up. Our offers are all in and around those areas.”

Gurley makes around $1 million more per year than Bell, so the yearly salary isn’t the major sticking point, per Cowlishaw. However, Gurley’s deal included $10 million more in guarantees than Bell. Cowlishaw believes the two sides will work out a deal by the end of the preseason. 

Dave Gettleman

Giants GM Dave Gettleman has become one of the most polarizing executives in the NFL for his decisions the past few seasons, headlined by the deicision to trade superstar WR Odell Beckham a year after making him the NFL’s highest-paid wide receiver. However, the 68-year-old veteran personnel man, who’s won three Super Bowls and reached three others, said he’s confident in the experience which guides his moves. 

“Why is there any guarantee that you’re going to write good articles? Why is there any guarantee that your career will continue to grow?” Gettleman tells Sports Illustrated’s Jonathan Jones. “There’s no guarantee. I’m not saying this from an arrogant place, I’m just saying that I’ve been around enough successful teams and I’ve seen the way they’re built. And to a degree I know what it looks, smells and tastes like. I have confidence in myself. I have confidence in the organization, and Pat and his staff, the scouting staffs. I have tremendous confidence in ownership. It’s almost like … you’re asking me if I’m being penalized because I’m confident in my skills.”

Gettleman did acknowledge there could potentially be some room to grow with the way he handles moving on from players. A long list of players, from Beckham to Landon Collins to Josh Norman to Steve Smith and DeAngelo Williams, still publicly hold Gettleman in low regard. His brusqueness and cold decision-making contributed to his surprise firing from Carolina in 2017. 

“There are times where my bedside manner hasn’t been the best. People will tell you that millennials want honesty,” Gettleman says. “Sometimes I’ve been a little too abrupt and to the point. And I think it’s because I’ve never been a pussyfooter. I’ve never dallied around. … Maybe there has to be a softer, kinder Dave Gettleman. Yeah, I’m 68, but I’m not an old man falling down. I’d like to think that I can learn, that I’m agile and can still learn.”

Gettleman also defended his decision to take RB Saquon Barkley despite some of the information about the relative importance of running backs being proposed by the football analytics community. 

“If that makes me a hater of analytics, because the analytic people say [you can plug and play whomever at running back], you can’t!,” Gettleman says. “If that’s the reasoning, that I’ve become a doddering old fool that hates analytics … that’s O.K.”

• Gettleman also drew attention for his comments that first-round QB Daniel Jones might sit behind Eli Manning for another three years, though he tells Jones he doesn’t believe that and he said it “just to say it.”