Seahawks should think about signing Colin Kaepernick

The Seahawks backup quarterback situation is not a good one. A possible fix would be to sign Colin Kaepernick, who is looking to make a comeback.

Forget what you saw, 12s, from Paxton Lynch in the Seahawks win over the Broncos in Seattle’s first preseason game of 2019. Lynch played well. But he was mostly playing against guys who will insurance claims adjusters in a month and not on an NFL team. Seattle needs to find a solid backup to Russell Wilson and that person could be Colin Kaepernick.

Let’s be clear. Kaepernick is not in the NFL because he isn’t good enough. His statistics are solid enough to make him a more viable starter than probably half the quarterbacks in the league. No, he isn’t the most accurate quarterback and Kaepernick would be extremely rusty after not playing the last two seasons. But he has the talent to be an NFL quarterback.

I have said this before but the city of Seattle would be a good place for Kaepernick to re-start his career. Seattle is a fairly open minded city who would not generally have an issue with Kaepernick’s past of kneeling during the national anthem. The issue there would be does Kaepernick upset the chemistry of the locker room with the national media attention that would be given a backup quarterback?

Kaepernick is not a bad person. Some might have you think that, but he simply expressed his opinions about police brutality and racial injustice. Maybe he didn’t always do it the best way, like wearing socks depicting police officers as pigs. But Kaepernick hasn’t ever harmed anyone physically and has a right to speak his mind, even if you have the right to not agree with what he is saying.

My point is that neither Geno Smith or Lynch is the answer to the question, “Can the Seahawks win games if Russell Wilson were to be hurt?” Kaepernick can run the same kind of offense as Wilson and do it better than Smith or Lynch. He can help Seattle win games. Kaepernick is good enough to do that.

There also wouldn’t be a bidding war for Kaepernick. If he really wants to play, as he has implied lately, then he probably understands he wouldn’t make as much money as he once did in the league. He would probably take a reduced deal for one year and then see what happens.

The Seahawks have been fortunate that Wilson has never been injured, but this is the NFL and eventually everyone gets hurt to some degree. If Kaepernick were to come in to replace an injured Wilson, Seattle wouldn’t be as good but they’d still be better with Kaepernick than Smith or Lynch or nearly any other quarterback currently available to sign.