The NFL world, Raider Nation, and the political world were ablaze with the news that the Las Vegas Raiders were bringing in Colin Kaepernick for a workout. Let’s take a closer look at the recent developments in Las Vegas.
Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels spoke to the media earlier today, and while he was mostly hush-hush regarding Kaepernick, he did drop some interesting tidbits, however, regarding the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and his workout. “[Colin] is the not the first player we’ve looked at and not the last one. The evaluations we make are private for us. If we make a decision to add somebody to the team then we’ll do it,” per Anthony Galaviz of the Fresno Bee.
What else did the Raiders’ head coach have to say regarding Colin Kaepernick?
Obviously, McDaniels was straightforward and emphasized that this was business as usual. For the coach, perhaps. But the outside world, the real world, feels quite differently. Kaepernick’s previous actions with regard to kneeling during the national anthem and criticisms of the country’s police system still resonate with Raiders fans.
Another interesting aspect to all of this is the Raiders’ current quarterback, three-time Pro Bowler Derek Carr. When asked about this, McDaniels shared that No. 4 wasn’t made aware of the workout initially.
“I think he knows this is his football team and he’s working like it on the field and he’s leading the way that we want him to lead and he’s doing all the right things.”
In retrospect, McDaniels was right. Carr is the leader and starting signal-caller. There’s now zero doubt about that following his extension. Adding Kaepernick would simply be a coaching decision, possibly giving them an experienced backup quarterback to fill Marcus Mariota’s role. It’s not unlikely that Kaepernick could take part in the redzone offense, for example. However, that’s all conjecture for the time being, nothing more.
As far as any other insight into Kaepernick, McDaniels was blunt and clear. “Just a standard procedure, we will only talk about the people who are on our team.” It’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of all this.
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