The Raiders worked out free agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick on May 25, the first time in five years he has gotten a private tryout from an NFL team. The Raiders have not moved to sign him, and thus, maybe they won’t.
But starting quarterback Derek Carr said he would welcome the addition of Kaepernick to the quarterbacks room.
“Well, I know Colin,” Carr said, via video from the team. “I’ve known Colin since our days playing in the WAC conference, which is no longer a thing. My gray hairs may start to make a point for that. I remember our days back then, just watching him and what he did in college and getting to know him and talking to him on the phone and things like that. I’ve loved my time with him. I think he’s a great guy. He’s been great to be around him. I’ve enjoyed being around him, talking with him, competing against him. Josh (McDaniels) told him they were doing it and all that kind of stuff. I literally said the same thing I’m telling you: I was like, ‘I’ve enjoyed my time around him. I love him. Him and I would get along great.’ My brother (David) knew him a little bit from San Francisco. He’s like, ‘I love Colin. He’s awesome.’ I think Colin would just have to answer more questions than all of us would have to: ‘Why hasn’t it happened? Why this? Why that?’ But for me it would have been just fine. I enjoyed my time with him.”
The NFL has blackballed Kaepernick since he took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial inequality in 2016. Kaepernick settled his collusion grievance against the league in 2019.
But he continues to campaign for a job, and the Raiders are as close as he’s come to getting a chance to return. Kaepernick last played in 2016. The 49ers cut him in March 2017, and other than a visit with the Seahawks five years ago, no other team had expressed any interest in Kaepernick until the Raiders worked him out last month.
The Raiders have Nick Mullens, Jarrett Stidham and Chase Garbers on the roster behind Carr, but Carr said he wouldn’t have any qualms about the team signing Kaepernick.
“For us, I think it’d be great,” Carr said of the acceptance of Kaepernick in the locker room. “I don’t want to speak for everybody. . . . I know him and I would get along great. I know we have in the past, and I think we would again. I think for the most part, I think he’d get along just fine with our guys.”