The Tennessee Titans made waves last week when they announced the signing of journeyman quarterback Brandon Weeden. In the wake of quarterback Marcus Mariota’s hamstring injury, Mike Mularkey’s squad found itself in need of a backup backup. But, of course, that didn’t stop people from talking about Colin Kaepernick, the most controversial figure in American football today – all because he’s offended a bunch of people with his protests.
It doesn’t help that Jason La Canfora reported that Kaepernick was interested in the Titans job. Naturally, Titans fans are going to take that and run with it. But, La Canfora also said that Kaepernick would stand for the anthem if he got another job in the NFL…which was wrong, and Kaepernick refuted the claim on Twitter. La Canfora was also the guy who reported that the Titans were being sold. Nope….not right. Not sure how this asshat still has a job, but hey – that’s an entirely separate tangent.
The move makes absolutely no sense for the Titans, and I don’t understand why it’s wrong to say that. More so, I don’t think this has anything whatsoever to do with his protests.
During the offseason, it was reported that Kaepernick wanted $10 million. TEN MILLION! That’s starter money! You had Pete Carroll saying “he’s a starter,” but then the Seattle Seahawks didn’t offer him a contract! People assumed it was about the protests, but read between the lines, folks. Does “he’s a starter” not sound like a veiled way of saying, “this guy wants to be a starter and won’t accept any less” or am I just reading too much into it?
I think that it’s more the select teams that needed a starting quarterback didn’t want him. Maybe that was for the protests, maybe it’s because all of the extracurricular activity has coaches questioning his commitment to football, or maybe it’s just that he hasn’t played all that well since taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl five seasons ago. I don’t know, but I think it’s unfair to say that every team in the NFL “didn’t want his baggage,” especially for the Titans. Let’s not make this about something it’s not. The Titans rolled with Weeden because he had the most experience with the system they run. And, if you ask Mularkey, the offense isn’t called any differently between Matt Cassel and Mariota – it’s just a matter of style and execution.
Cassel makes $2.5M a season, and he’s been in the system for a while now. The staff loves him, and let’s be honest, if he isn’t asked to throw the ball further than 15 yards downfield, he’s fine. All kidding aside, the Titans are a lot better off than other teams who are riding backup quarterbacks this season – namely the Dolphins.
When Mariota went down with a hamstring injury, the thinking wasn’t, “oh no! Who are we going to start now?!?!” The thinking was, “oh boy – get Matt ready, and shit….now, we need someone to back him up!” So, let’s circle back – if Kaepernick is asking for even half of what was reported in the offseason, and he has to learn the offense from scratch, -AND- he’s going to be the THIRD STRING quarterback, why on Earth would you take him over Weeden?
This is why the Titans wouldn’t sign him. It just didn’t make sense to. The Titans just need a warm body who has some sort of semblance of recognition of the offense, on a week-to-week basis, to fill in in case Cassel goes down. Again, let’s not make this about something it isn’t.
I can’t make it any clearer…if Mariota cannot go, this staff is going to ride or die with Cassel.
Now, if you want to say that the Titans should have brought in Kaepernick and cut Cassel back in the offseason, okay. Have at it. I’m not going to argue that Cassel is better than Kaep, but the amount of money that Kaep is allegedly wanting is not something you pay for a third-string quarterback, plain and simple. Make no mistake, that is what he would’ve been.
I do believe that Kaepernick has largely been blacklisted from the NFL, but I think it’s for several reasons:
- The PR baggage that comes with the protests.
- He wants a starting job with starter’s money.
- People question his loyalty to football.
It’s like in the grander scheme of life – people want to boil everything down to one singular issue or reason. That’s not the case. So many problems are complex and fluid that it’s dumb to do so. Kaepernick is not going to fit with every team, but because of the backlash he’s endured, suddenly every team has become the villain. It’s just nonsense. Why isn’t anyone complaining that the New England Patriots didn’t sign him? Where are the people complaining that the Indianapolis Colts chose to trade for Jacoby Brissett instead of signing Kaepernick?
I hope that Kaepernick finds himself another job in the NFL, and I hope he gets the opportunity to start somewhere. Realistically, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be a Jet or Brown this season. Those are the teams that, if you ask me, deserve to have the finger pointed at ’em.
I’m happy to see a man, regardless of whether I agree or disagree, standing for what he believes in. I can appreciate that sort of conviction and believe he has every right to do what he’s doing. I’ll go a step further and say that the outrage towards Kaepernick justifies the fact that this conversation needed to happen.
But, that has nothing to do with the Titans, and to argue otherwise is inaccurate.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. A strong advocate of GSD (get shit done) and #BeBetter, he’s down to talk Tennessee Titans and Alabama Crimson Tide football over a beer any day. Check him out covering the WWE for WrestlingNews.co. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley, @WrestlingNewsCo
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