–This will be fast, because I have a speaking engagement today, but just wanted to put this down as the NFL “legal tampering” period begins and players get released…
Washington, as long expected, has officially released QB Robert Griffin III, and now let’s see if and how hard the 49ers go after him.
This could be the biggest go/no-go moment of the 49ers’ off-season because it’s the most direct move they could possibly make at the QB spot.
If they sign RG3, they’ll almost certainly waive or trade Colin Kaepernick and plan for a Blaine Gabbert/RG3 competition at QB for 2016.
That’s pretty clear, that’s relatively logical, that would be something that seems to fit the Chip Kelly style.
But if the 49ers don’t land RG3 or another veteran QB (and RG3 would be the most likely option, by far, I think), then it gets complicated with Kaepernick.
Right now, with only Gabbert guaranteed to be on the roster and without knowing what the 49ers will do with the No. 7 overall pick in the draft, the 49ers are in a staredown with Kaepernick.
It’s all in hints and passive-aggressive signals, but so far 49ers management has been suggesting that they don’t care that Kaepernick’s camp has asked for permission to seek a trade.
And Kaepernick, from what I understand, has every intention of pushing his way out of Santa Clara–because he has zero faith in 49ers management, and he has good reason to have zero faith if you’ve at all been following along the past two seasons.
Of course, Jed York and Trent Baalke are suggesting that they have every intent to keep him on the roster past April 1, which would guarantee his $11.9M base for the regular season.
The key points:
-If they don’t sign another veteran QB, the 49ers have the cap and roster space to pay Kaepernick the money, even if it’s just for him to ride the bench (the way RG3 did last season in Washington).
-And Kelly either has the eagerness/willingness to see what Kaepernick can do in his offense, or, even if Kaepernick wants out, Kelly seems to be willing to play along with the bluff, at least for the short-term.
-I don’t think Kelly is particularly interested in bringing this potentially large distraction into his first mini-camps and training camp with the 49ers, but we’ll see how this progresses.
Does Griffin seem like a much better option and fit than Kaepernick for Kelly’s offense?
Maybe, maybe not. That’s for Kelly to decide and he probably wouldn’t say if we asked him directly at this point.
The more important aspect, by far: RG3 might very much want to explore his options with the 49ers, while we know Kaepernick doesn’t want to be in Santa Clara any more.
This is the fastest way this situation could be cleared up–RG3 for Kaepernick, just like that. Let’s see how hard the 49ers work to get it done, because we know they almost never do anything the simplest, fastest, most logical way.
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