It’s been a couple weeks since the Raiders hosted Colin Kaepernick for a workout. They have four quarterbacks on the roster currently and none are named Kaepernick.
When the reports came out that Kaepernick was getting a workout in Las Vegas, some wondered how this affected Derek Carr. Whether he was onboard with it and if the team ran it by him ahead of time.
At the time, head coach Josh McDaniels danced around the question.
“I think Derek’s pretty comfortable with where he’s at, and I think he knows who he is for us,” said McDaniels on May 26. “I know he knows how I feel about him, how we feel about him. I don’t think that’s really a big thing to Derek at this point. I think he knows this is his football team and he’s working like it on the field. He’s leading the way that we want him to lead and he’s doing all the right things. I couldn’t ask for more from Derek Carr and very pleased with what he’s doing so far.”
Kaepernick and Carr had in the same circles in the past. Both are Central Valley natives – Kaepernick from Turloc and Carr from Bakersfield. They played in the same conference in college and their years overlapped, albeit before Carr was the starter at Fresno State. Then Kaepernick was playing across the Bay with the 49ers when Carr was drafted by the Raiders. And they faced each other once as pros.
Carr spoke Tuesday following the first day of mandatory minicamp and he said McDaniels did notified him the team was working out Kaepernick and that gave it his full support.
“I’ve enjoyed being around him, talking with him, competing against him,” Carr said of Kaepernick. “Josh told me they were doing it and I literally said the same thing I’m telling you. I enjoyed my time around him, I love him. He and I would get along great with him. My brother [David] knew him from San Francisco and he said ‘I love Colin, I think it’s awesome’.”
One common criticism of the idea that Kaepernick should not be signed is the supposed ‘distraction’ he would be. Carr brushed that off, noting that Kaepernick himself would have to field the difficult questions, not so much for the rest of the team. And doesn’t see anyone else on the team having issue with Kaepernick.
“For us I think he’d be great,” Carr continued. “I don’t want to speak for everybody in that kind of sense. . . but I know he and I would get along great. We have in the past. For the most part I think he would get along just fine with our guys.”
In most cases, if the team were looking to sign a player, it would happen shortly after the workout. But as McDaniels noted, they work out player all the time, if only to get a feel for whether they might want to add them should the need arise. And it’s still June, so anything’s possible. Safe to say there’s nothing really standing in the way should they want to make the move.