The Carolina Panthers won’t be sending anyone to free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s workout on Saturday in Atlanta, per Joe Person at the Athletic. The team has been clear it has no plans to pursue a veteran QB at this point, as owner David Tepper told safety Eric Reid earlier in the week.
That means Kyle Allen’s critics should get comfortable, because he’s not going anywhere unless he gets injured.
Even if Kaepernick was never on the table as a backup option, there are others. A case could be made to sign someone like Taylor Heinicke, as he’s familiar with the offense and Will Grier might be a liability if he’s asked to do much at all in the event Allen goes down. However, there’s been no indication of any interest on the QB front so far in 2019. Like it or not, Allen is the guy at QB for the foreseeable future.
As for Kaepernick, a lot of people have questioned why the NFL arranged this workout. Saturday is certainly an unusual time of the week to do it, when most teams are preparing for games the next day. It’s also worth asking why the league gave Kaepernick’s reps such little notice and why interested teams themselves didn’t reach out to him instead of to the league.
For what it’s worth, Reid says the whole thing feels more like a PR stunt than a legitimate opportunity for Kaepernick to show what he can do.
Several teams will be attending, though.
