The New England Patriots are an immense sporting franchise built on the back of mercurial coaching, brilliant quarterback play, and a revolution at the tight-end position.
They have lost two thirds of what made them brilliant to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski both signing with them in contentious and acrimonious ways.
They could surprise us. They’ve done it before with a gangly kid taken with pick 199. But in this exponentially more corporate world, they’ll need an experienced head to lead them.
The man to do that – the man to captain this historic franchise – is Colin Kaepernick.
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Kaepernick led his San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2012, falling agonisingly short of the ultimate glory. He has a record of 12,271 passing yards, 72 touchdowns, and a passer rating of 88.9.
To compare that to the GOAT, it is hardly anything to sneeze at. When you consider that in concert with Kaepernick’s far better rushing stats (2300 yards, 13 touchdowns) and mobility, the case starts to become a little more cogent.
However, Kaepernick had an extremely contentious exit from the NFL, being blacklisted and waived by the 49ers in 2016 in large part due to him taking a knee during the United States’ national anthem. Kaepernick was blacklisted and settled a collusion lawsuit with the NFL in 2019.
Now that’s all over, why should the Patriots sign him?
Let’s take a look at their current quarterback stocks. The Patriots have Jarrett Stidham, Brian Hoyer, Brian Lewerke and J’Mar Smith.
Hoyer is the most accomplished of these players as a journeyman quarterback who has played second fiddle to Brady for years, but as a result has a Super Bowl ring.
(Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Lewerke and Smith, on the other hand, are both undrafted free agents signed in the spring of 2020. So that leaves lucky number four, Jarrett Stidham, a fourth-round pick from Auburn University in Alabama.
I would not expect the Hail Mary pass to work twice for the New England Patriots, which is fundamentally what they are expecting with the use of Stidham as their first-string quarterback.
So they need someone with experience, and someone who can throw the ball. Kaepernick provides both of those things as a mobile running-and-gunning quarterback.
Additionally, he sends a strong message to the rest of the NFL that the Patriots are willing to be bold and aggressive with their strategies, as well as buying time for the young corps of quarterbacks to develop.
Finally, the signing of Kaepernick sends an important message to the NFL supporters within the African American community. It sends the message that we believe you, we understand your pain, and we are here to help, especially in light of recent events.
The signing of Kaepernick would be the ultimate expression of the league having learnt from their mistakes and would encourage independent thought among their player base.
aem
Guest
Here's why they won't: * Pats have no money. * Pats want to see what they have in Jarrett Stidham - can't do that with him sitting on the bench. * If Stidham fails, they will likely want to win as few games as possible to put themselves in a position to go get the next guy in what (currently) looks like a good QB draft. Beyond all of that, Cam Newton is a better QB on the market. Injury risk? Sure. But Kaepernick hasn't played at all in years, that is a risk also. And one of the two has an MVP - the other has had 1 significantly good (though not full) year and 2 pretty good years under the same OC (who isn't available) running a significantly different from the norm offense - and very little outside of that. But most of all: the Pats have no money. And really not much scope to make room, either. They'll sink or swim with Stidham, and use the year to otherwise reset the roster in the areas where it needs work.
FantasyFootballDownUnder
Roar Rookie
1. Not quite correct. He missed 1 season in his career with injuries. Sure, a few throughout his career, but the most serious one was suffered in a car crash. Nothing to do with his play. The Panthers are in a total organisational rebuild. They moved on as they didn't want to pay him $19 million in 2020 and his guaranteed money was gone. 2. Like I said, for the merits of signing Kap, why he was cut by the 9ers has nothing to do with it. 3. Their passing metrics are almost identical over a career sample, whether you look at completion % or adjusted yards per attempt. Cam has a higher TD and INT rate, which makes sense as he is a more aggressive passer and looks to force the ball downfield. He is a far superior runner. All of his career stats check that out - he might be the best rusher at the QB position of all time in terms of sheer output. He also has an NFL MVP to his name, and makes throws on a rope that I don't recall Kap seeing make. I could just not have seen those though. 4. We don't know that - but the organisation has made no moves. They clearly think highly of him and are more than happy with Hoyer as a backup as seen in multiple seasons before. We will only find out what Stidham has if he plays. 5. I don't see Kap taking a $1 million 1 year deal to be a backup, but if he did, they are better teams out there that would fit his skill set, and not completely eat up the rest of their cap space. Ravens come to mind, esp with Greg Roman there, as do the Bills.
Charlie Keegan
Roar Guru
So 1. Newton is farrrrrrr too injury prone thats why the Panthers ditched him. 2. The reason the 49ers ditched Kap was a pretence, he was kicking up too much of a stink surrounding police brutality and the kneeling at the national anthem such that the NFL settled with Kap for tens of millions of dollars. 3. You mention Newton being a better QB, I disagree, he and Kap are very difficult to separate, Kap is better on the pass whilst Newton is more mobile. 4. Finally, Stidham might be a gun, I don't know, problem is we don't know that, we need someone to be able to come in and give him the back up. 5. They wouldn't need to spend that much money on Kap either.
FantasyFootballDownUnder
Roar Rookie
Making absolutely zero comment on the reasons for Kap not playing the last few years, but there is zero % chance of this happening. Firstly, the Pats have less than $1.5m in cap space remaining. Secondly, if they weren't planning to ride with Stidham there are other QBs available like Newton who is not only a better QB than Kap, but has been better more recently. It has been many years since Kap played at a high level in the NFL. He will also turn 33 in November, meaning it will be nearly 4 years since we saw him play at an NFL level. His game is predicated on athleticism that is likely diminished as well. The organisation is very high on Stidham, and he is actually a mobile QB himself I was all for the Pats to sign Newton, but it's clear that is not happening. They need to see what they have and the only way that happens is by letting him play.