- Jul 27, 2010
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IMO, Kaep ended his NFL chances Saturday.
His chances were almost certainly ended when he filed suit vs. the NFL. It was always going to to be very difficult to play after he had won money by arguing he wasn't allowed to play. As a sportswriter pointed out, any of the two dozen or so teams that had planned to attend (and the more than a dozen, like Denver, who backed out after the site was moved), could have invited Kaep to work out for them at any time, no money risked, no strings attached. They didn't need this workout.
I don't think the NFL arranged the workout to let teams see if Kaep's skills were still good enough for him to be a backup QB. As one sympathetic player said, why should someone with his track record have to prove anything at this point? He replaced Alex Smith, a no. 1 draft choice who while not living up to that, was until his injury considered a sold starting QB, one who probably half the teams in the NFL would have taken over their current starter. Not so long ago, Kaep was considered one of the most promising young QBs in the league, ranked behind the now-departed Luck, but ahead of the likely MVP this year, Wilson. Kaep still holds the record for most rushing yards by a QB in a postseason game, a record even Lamar Jackson is unlikely to break.
I think the workout was a test. The NFL wanted to see how well Kaep would behave, if he would do what he was told. Just throw the ball, without any distractions. And had they allowed him to film the workout independently, which sure doesn't sound like an outrageous request to me, Kaep might have fallen into line.
According to this writer, it was also an effort by the NFL to get all the fans who supported Kaep's political stance to return to the fold. Remember, despite all the flack Kaep has taken, he has a large body of support, even including from major players like Nike. The NFL doesn't want to write off all that if they can find some way to appease them. But that's probably what has happened.
