Denver Broncos: Why not Colin Kaepernick at quarterback?

Should the Denver Broncos take a look at Colin Kaepernick?

As we all know, Colin Kaepernick is still on the waiver wire waiting to be picked up by an NFL team. He has spent the entire off season unclaimed since the San Francisco 49ers released him on March 1, 2017, clearing $14.4 million in cap space. Since then, he has been on the waivers waiting to sign with a new team.

Kaepernick played six seasons in the league, passing for a total of 12,271 yards and 72 touchdowns while also rushing for 2,300 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has showed success in recent years, starting in 11 games last season passing for 2,241 yards while averaging 6.8 yards per attempt. He also had a 4-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio, which is very good, considering he only threw four interceptions last year. He only has one season with double digit interceptions, which was in 2014 when he threw 10 interceptions.

As a team last year, the Denver Broncos passed for a total of 3,685 yards and 20 touchdowns, just four touchdowns more than what Kaerpernick threw in just 11 games. Trevor Siemian was the main contributor to the passing game last year, starting 14 games and passing for 3,401 yards and 18 touchdowns.

Paxton Lynch got the nod to start in two games last season and was very inefficient, completing 59 percent of his passes and throwing for a dismal 6.0 yards per attempt. Both Siemian and Lynch are in the developmental stages of their career and will need time to iron out the rough edges of their game before they become proficient quarterbacks at the NFL level.

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The quarterbacks on this roster aren’t bad. Lynch was one of the top quarterback prospects in the 2016 NFL Draft and has a lot of potential. But he’s still developing and it could be another year or so until he’s fully ready to take over as the team’s starting quarterback. Siemian won the starting job last year, but he was less than optimal when it came to efficiency and overall output. He too is still in the development phase of his career.

Kaepernick has 58 starts under his belt and has won a total of 28 games in his career. He’s a seasoned veteran who has enough experience to get a talented team like Denver over the hump. Outside of the quarterback position, the Broncos have enough talent to make the playoffs and possibly push their way into the Super Bowl.

That’s not saying Kaepernick is the guy to get them to where they want to be, but he has enough experience to give the team the best chance to make a playoff run late in the year. Nothing against the quarterbacks who are currently on the roster, but they still need time to develop their skill sets, and the team is ready to win now.

Kaepernick could be a stop-gap while Lynch develops, giving the team the opportunity to have their cake and eat it to, by being able to compete this year while being able to develop their young quarterbacks.

It’s now July, and it’s we are only a few months away from the start of the season, meaning that time is starting to dwindle away, making it harder for a newly acquired quarterback like Kaepernick to possibly learn a new offensive system and be effective by Week 1. He would start training camp behind the other quarterbacks on the roster due to not knowing the terminology of the playbook and needing the time to get acclimated to the offensive system.

If anything he could be a solid backup quarterback for Lynch, if the team decides they want to infuse experience to help progress Lynch’s development. It’s always a good thing to add talent to the roster, especially at a position that needs an upgrade.

Next: 2017 NFL QB Power Rankings: Pre-Training Camp

Kaepernick is still a very good player who has the talent to start for an NFL franchise. The odds are highly unlikely that they take a chance on him, but it’s still very interesting to entertain the idea of how he can help the Broncos in 2017. I personally don’t think the team will take a chance on him this late into the game and at this moment in time, it feels like they are very committed to Siemian and Lynch. The team has enough talent on both sides of the ball to make a playoff push this year, especially if they can get extra production out of their young quarterbacks.

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