Maybe just not that good?

Colin Kaepernick is back in the news as a face of Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign with a reference to sacrificing everything. I do not intend to dig into the discussion about the right to kneel, should he kneel, disrespect, peaceful protest…

Nope. I am just going to respond to the “sacrificed everything” bit. I read quite a few posts/tweets recently that are calling out the NFL for not letting Kaepernick play. I wondered if he is being kept out for his politics alone, or could it be that he doesn’t have the game to remain in the league any longer.

Let’s look at the numbers. 2014 – He plays all 16 games and here are his rankings in some of the major categories (note: there are 32 teams in the league).

Completion percentage: 60.5% of the times he threw the ball, someone on his team caught it. Good enough for 29th in the league. Just a little better than the numbers put up by such NFL greats as Zach Mettenberger, Geno Smith, or Jake Locker.

Yards per attempt: 7. When the ball left his hands, on average the team gained 7 yards. Sounds like a good number, but in actuality that will land him in 31st place…slightly ahead of Austin Davis and Mike Glennon.

Yards per game: 210.6. That was 29th best for an NFL QB that season. He ranked right there with Mettenberger and Davis again as well as Drew Stanton and Josh McCown.

He threw 19 touchdowns which was 18th, so right about middle of the pack…though that was the same number Kyle Orton threw that year. Interceptions clocked in at 10, which is again good for 29th. He ranked right there with Orton and Mark Sanchez.

He was sacked 52 times which was twice the number of sacks as taken by Eli “not the fleetest of foot” Manning. His overall rating for the season was 86.4, which is on par with Brandon Weeden.

But he was a great runner, he made things happen with his feet! Really? 1 rushing TD for the whole season is winning games with his feet. He rushed for 639 yards! Sure, but he lost 5 fumbles for 344 to the negative.

You will notice that when I put his stats for the year, I put some unknown (or slightly memorable) quarterbacks in for comparison. Where are those quarterbacks now?

Zach Mettenberger played in seven more NFL games after 2014 and now plays for Alliance Memphis of the Alliance of American Football…or he will when the new league begins play in 2019. Geno Smith has played in 5 games since that season. Jake Locker retired after 2014..his fourth season. Austin Davis played in 6 games (3 where he simply took the knee at the end of the game). Mike Glennon has played in six games as well.

Brandon Weeden, the player with a similar rating in 2014? He took 49 snaps in 2015 with 15 of those plays ending in sacks and 2 with lost fumbles. He played no games in 2016 or 2017.

The numbers and comparisons are similar for 2015 and 2016. The only difference was that he did have more touchdowns in 2016, but other than that, he was ranked between 28th and 41st in most major statistical categories for which quarterbacks are rated.

He was already on the borderline of remaining in the NFL with his massive salary and his mediocre performance. He had signed a deal worth a potential $126 million and when all was said and done, he received about $39 million of that. He willingly used his player option to get out of that contract and test the free market.

There are conflicting reports, but many sources agree that the Broncos offered him a deal at a reduced rate, which he rejected. Certainly, you can’t fault him for holding on to the idea that a team somewhere would be willing to pay him something close to what he had been earning prior.

The problem is that he carried the “controversial” tag and many teams were loathe to associate themselves with him. If you look at the statistics, he just wasn’t good enough to get an NFL team interested in taking the risk of upsetting their fan base.

If you think the NFL doesn’t keep controversial players, think again. Ray Lewis was convicted of obstruction of justice in a double homicide in 2001, and went on to play for 11 more seasons. Probably because he was one of the greatest defensive players in history. Though he did miss out on the “I’m going to Disney World” ad as the Super Bowl MVP.

Greg Hardy was suspended for domestic violence, but the Dallas Cowboys risked upsetting their fan base by signing him because he was extremely talented. When his play declined, he was not re-signed.

Adrian Peterson was convicted of negligent injury to a child. He was picked up and is still playing. Why? Because teams believe that he is still a top running back.

Hell, Terrance Williams drove his Lamborghini into a tree and then fled. He still plays. Dylan Donahue was convicted of driving with a .15 BAC the wrong way in the Lincoln Tunnel and crashing into a bus. He was suspended, but still has a contract.

So, is Colin Kaepernick being held out of the NFL solely because of his political and social stances? Looking at the numbers, I don’t see how you can still believe that. No matter what the ex-leader of Iran (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) tweeted about Colin being “one of the best Quarterbacks in the league”, we know differently. He had some good seasons and then his play diminished greatly. When you compare him to the players who had similar numbers, you will see that they are also no longer in the league or barely hanging on.

Again, this is in no way about whether he should have knelt or his right to protest or any of that. I am not even going to try to “whatabout” by using the soldiers or police or others that sacrifice as a comparison. I am only trying to point out that he, at best, gave up an opportunity to be a player that came in off the bench in case of injury or blowout. I don’t know if that truly qualifies as sacrificing everything.