Colin Kaepernick is better than any quarterback the Bears have. He’s better than backup Chase Daniel, who, by the way, is better than starter Mitch Trubisky.
They should sign him.
But on several levels, it would be shocking if the Bears took a chance on Kaepernick, who has been effectively banned from the NFL for the sin of exercising his First Amendment right to free speech.
The league has arranged a workout Saturday in Atlanta for teams interested in seeing what the former 49ers quarterback looks like. It’s equal parts science experiment and sham — a science experiment because Kaepernick hasn’t played in almost three years and a sham because he’s been available for almost three years. We’re supposed to believe there’s suddenly mass interest in him?
The Bears said Wednesday through a spokesman that they never divulge where they send their scouts, so we don’t know if they’ll be in attendance at Saturday’s workout. If they don’t go, it will be borderline criminal for a franchise that has major quarterback issues. If they’re worried about damaging Trubisky’s already shaky confidence by going to Atlanta, they’ve got even bigger problems than we thought.
If they do go, who knows, they might just find a way to get better.
In 2016, Kaepernick’s last season in the league, he threw 16 touchdowns passes and had four interceptions in 12 games. He was also benched during that season. His pedestrian 90.7 passer rating that year is still better than Trubisky’s 85.2 rating this season.
He was the 49ers’ starting quarterback in the Super Bowl during the 2012 season.
If you want to argue that Rex Grossman started for the Bears in a Super Bowl, I see your point. But Kaepernick threw for 302 yards in his big moment, Grossman 165 in his. During that same postseason, Kaepernick rushed for 181 yards against the Packers.
He presumably still has skills that are still in demand in the NFL. When he was playing, he had a powerful arm, ran fast and could carry out a complicated game plan. That’s changed in three years? I don’t think so.
He’ll also come cheap by quarterback standards, and for a team with issues at the position, he would be a perfect solution, even if it were just as a backup in the beginning.
The Bears’ troubles at quarterback aren’t going away. To argue that it would take too long for Kaepernick to get into shape to help any time soon would be shortsighted. The team is going to have the same problems next year, especially if general manager Ryan Pace clings to Trubisky. The bet here is that he will. If Pace doesn’t bring in competition for Trubisky next season, he’ll be arrested on charges of impersonating a GM. He’s already under surveillance.
Bears coach Matt Nagy said Wednesday that he’s rooting for Kaepernick to do well in the workout.
“It’ll be interesting,” he said. “He’s been out of the game a little bit, but when he was doing well and playing, he definitely was a weapon. I’ll be curious to see how he does. For me, I wish him the best and all that. You always want good for people.’’
If this were exclusively a football question, Kaepernick would still be playing. But it’s not, of course. For some paying customers, it’s a question of patriotism. When Kaepernick decided to kneel during the National Anthem to protest social injustice, he started a passionate debate between those of us who believe he was putting into action the freedom that the American flag represents and those who believe the anthem is a tribute to the military.
The McCaskeys, the family that owns the Bears, has never been in the business of doing anything that might negatively affect attendance, or, as they like to call it, “gobs of money.’’ There’s little doubt that there would be protests if the team signed Kaepernick. At a minimum, his presence would be a distraction.
You know what drives a lot of Bears fans to distraction? A long, long history of poor quarterback play. I wouldn’t begin to argue that Kaepernick is the best answer to the franchise’s woes at the position. But if the goal is victories, he eventually would give the Bears a better chance of winning games than Trubisky would.
Nothing has changed with the Kaepernick issue except time. Like every other team, the Bears can hide behind his inactivity the past three years. They can say there’s too much rust. As if they and others didn’t play a hand in that rust by refusing to sign him.
But a 32-year-old quarterback doesn’t forget how to run and throw.
“I’m super glad for him and I really hope GMs and executives go to his workout because I do think he can still play,’’ Daniel said. “When he was rolling, a lot of people still remember that Green Bay game when he ran for (181) yards as a quarterback and they really brought up the zone read. He took a really good San Francisco team to the Super Bowl. I remember him playing very well in this league, so we’ll see what happens.”
We will. And the guess here is, not much.
