The Las Vegas Raiders’ decision to give Colin Kaepernick a tryout last week surprised a lot of folks in NFL circles.
Suddenly, the prospect of him returning to pro football went from being a fantasy to potential reality.
Almost immediately, two other NFL teams suddenly decided they too had interest in adding Kaepernick.
So where do all parties involved go from here?
This week NBC Sports NFL insider Peter King offered his thoughts on Kaepernick’s Raiders future.
“Coach Bill Parcells, at games, used to carry in his back pocket what he called his ‘Ready List,’ a list with two or three prime unsigned players at each position,” he wrote.
“That way, if the Giants had an injury during a game, Parcells could check the Ready List and direct pro scout Tim Rooney to get Player X to the Giants’ facility so he could be signed by the next day. Parcells was famous for working out players to see if they’d be a fit in a time of need, and continually update the list as the year went on.
“When I heard McDaniels say the Raiders had worked out a ton of guys, I thought of the Ready List, and thought of the ton of guys McDaniels and Ziegler saw Bill Belichick direct the Patriots to work out when they worked under Belichick….
“My guess is McDaniels and Ziegler have that Ready List, for sure, and the workout of Kaepernick was to see where he might fall on that list in case the Raiders get an injury at quarterback. Or in case another team gets a quarterback hurt and trades for [backup Nick]Mullens, leaving the Raiders with a roster spot to be filled by a quarterback.”
While King’s assessment seems to suggest that Kaepernick has a better shot at making an NFL return than he probably has before, it’s hard not to also view it as him dismissing the prospect.
There is a pretty big gap between being a name somewhere on a long list of potential player replacements and being a legitimate NFL player. One has a longshot chance of ever seeing the field in any capacity, the other is almost guaranteed to do so at some point.
It feels like all those reports about Kaepernick being done in the NFL and everything else just being fan service is still true.
Can it change between now and the start of the 2022-23 season?
Absolutely.
Jordan Poole is on quite the hot streak. https://t.co/1BqrDG8J7W
— Game 7 (@game7__) May 31, 2022
Will it?
Time will tell.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
