Sports Illustrated’s Peter King wrote Monday in his MMQB blog that the Oakland Raiders back in April 2011 tried to trade up for rookie quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Obviously the San Francisco 49ers did so before Oakland, but how different would the bay area be had that transaction occured?
Radiers head coach Hue Jackson told King that “I think about it all the time, believe me,” and that there’s “no question in my mind we wanted it to happen, and no question I thought it could happen. We wanted the kid in the worst way.”
When asked by King himself whether there was substance to the Kaepernick-to-Oakland talk, Kaepernick said “Coach Jackson told me before the draft they were going to do everything they could to try to get me… I thought there was a good chance they’d pick me. I never heard anything from the 49ers before the draft after I worked out for them [at Nevada]. I just figured they weren’t interested.”
King also reiterates that Kaepernick was the highest rated passer the Raiders had on their big board that year, ahead of the likes of Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder and Andy Dalton. Having made public how highly sought after Kaepernick was to the Raiders, San Francisco was able to trade up, thanks to the Raiders’ divisional foe Denver Broncos, and select Kaepernick in the second round.
There was little the Raiders could do to pony up ammo for a trade to select Kaepernick in the second round, as their picks basically belonged to the New England Patriots as a result of the Richard Seymour trade. All Oakland could do was hope he slid and fell.
Rick Kaepernick, Colin’s father, told King that he was informed former Raiders owner Al Davis had thrown a glass across the war room in anger when the Niners chose Kaepernick. Jackson was unaware of such an instance happening, but added, “He was upset. So was I. Scouting him, I fell in love with the kid. Leader, won a ton of games at Nevada, really impressive when you talked to him, strong, all the tools to win in the NFL. No doubt in my mind he was going to be good.”
The worst part for the Raiders? They were right.
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