Jay Gruden’s excuse for not signing Colin Kaepernick is bullsh-t. Here’s why
Washington could make a playoff run with Kaepernick, but would rather give up.
The football team in Washington is effectively waving the white flag on their season. After losing Alex Smith and Colt McCoy to season-ending injuries, they’re electing to run with Mark Sanchez as their starting quarterback instead of reaching out to former NFC champion quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Mind you, the season is not lost for Washington. This isn’t some 0-12 team that’s looking forward to what they’re going to do with the first pick in the NFL Draft — this is a team that’s very much in playoff contention. They’re 6-6 and sit one game out from the lead in the NFC East.
Washington head coach Jay Gruden shot down the idea that the team would bring in Kaepernick as they trot out their third string quarterback. None of Gruden’s responses to the questions he received pertaining to Kaepernick made much sense, especially considering that they just brought Mark Sanchez onto their roster.
Gruden said that Washington simply didn’t have enough to time bring Kaepernick into the fold.
Gruden said Colin Kaepernick was discussed but "we'll probably go in a different direction" because of the compressed time frame and the need to get someone ready quickly. #Redskins
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) December 4, 2018
Sanchez was signed on November 19th, just two weeks before he ended up taking snaps on Monday Night Football against the Philadelphia Eagles. When Gruden commented on the Sanchez signing back on the 19th he cited playoff experience and meaningful snaps as reasons for his signing:
“We had a workout today; looked pretty good,” Gruden said Monday. “But [it’s] based on his past experiences with Coach O’Connell and Cavanaugh. He’s won some playoff games, he’s got a lot of experience. I think this time of the year, you need somebody who’s taken some meaningful snaps, [with] a lot of experience, and Mark’s done that.”
Well ... Colin Kaepernick has taken a lot of meaningful snaps as well — and came inches away from beating the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XLVII.
With McCoy out, Gruden said that Washington is looking for quarterback just like Mark Sanchez. That’s a meaningless statement that holds even less value when you look at the production of Sanchez’s career. He’s thrown 86 touchdowns to 87 interceptions and has a career passer rating of 73.7.
Followed up with Gruden on Kaep on if the conversation around him was different than any other QB:
— Craig Hoffman (@CraigHoffman) December 4, 2018
“No. Not really. It really is about evaluating the skillset. If it was week 1, there would be a better possibility.”
Now looking for a similar style to Sanchez to back him up.
Sanchez hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass since Thanksgiving in 2015 — Kaepernick most recently threw a touchdown in Week 17 of the 2016 season. Even looking at the raw numbers, Kaepernick is clear upgrade over Sanchez (he’s better than Colt McCoy too).
Kaepernick has thrown 72 touchdown to just 30 interceptions in his career and has a passer rating of 88.2. Kaepernick’s 88.2 passer rating ranks 18th all time and is higher than Alex Smith’s mark of 87.3.
Jay Gruden also said that another issue with bringing in Kaepernick would be the formations and plays that they’d have to take time to learn in practice.
Gruden says it would have been easier to bring in Kaepernick in Week 1 than now in Week 13 because you have to build packages and formations around his unique skill set. #redskins
— Kareem Copeland (@kareemcopeland) December 4, 2018
In 10 games this season, Alex Smith ran the ball 36 times for 173 yards and one touchdown, excluding kneel downs. Having someone like Kaepernick who can make plays with his legs isn’t much different from what Washington already had at the quarterback position in the first place. Besides, isn’t the job of the team to acquire the best available talent and coach it into the style of play they’re looking for?
Now, Washington is looking at players who aren’t even close to Colin Kaepernick’s caliber to come in an play behind Mark Sanchez.
Team also considering Josh Johnson, EJ Manuel, TJ Yates and others from workouts two weeks ago.
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) December 4, 2018
Of course, all of these excuses that Gruden made are just getting around the real point here — the team isn’t comfortable with the stand against racial injustice that Kaepernick took.
Back in October of 2017, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham reported on the NFL owner’s meeting revolving around the player protests and Donald Trump’s deafening criticism. Washington owner Dan Snyder was one of the owners that felt that the players should stand during the anthem citing that “96 percent” of Americans thought they should stand.
Most pro-stand owners, like Dan Snyder of the Washington Redskins, had been purposefully excluded from the players’ meeting.
As Jones spoke, Snyder mumbled out loud, “See, Jones gets it -- 96 percent of Americans are for guys standing,” a claim some dismissed as a grand overstatement.
It’s not surprising that Washington would refuse to look into Colin Kaepernick, even though they could desperately use someone like him right about now.
In the mean time, Washington is effectively giving up on their season, even though they very much control their own destiny in regards to making the playoffs.