Colin Kaepernick Negotiates His Contract
The talks between Colin Kaepernick and Denver have seemed to temporarily stall. This is good, because maybe they’ll keep talking for a longer period of time and give me more material than DRAFT STUFF. Draft draft draft draft draft draft I hate this time of year. The draft is a gong show at this point.
Anyway longtime readers might remember the first appearance of Sammy here. I forgot about that comic and I was happy to remember it yesterday because I think the idea of his tortoise being hell spawn is still funny. So consider this an update to that joke, now with significantly better art (Sometimes I feel like I’ve made no progress then I go look back on an old comic and I go damn I sucked even harder back then). Also, first comic with the new tablet! Hooray!
I don’t know if Kaep should go to Denver or not. I certainly don’t think he should give up such a pay cut. If Kaep is truly broken at this point, he should keep as much money as he can. Kaep already signed a stupid contract, I have no issue with him demanding he get what he can out of it after witnessing one team screw him over and seeing another team possibly want to do the same. I can bet he contacted Osweiler and asked about that whole benching scenario. As for Kaep the player, I’m still torn on if I think he’s toast or he’s still bread. A good comparison is RG3: A athletic freak who got by largely on fearlessness and running around in simple offenses until teams figured him out. The difference is Kaep was never physically broken, he just appeared to be mentally broken. RG3 I feel is toast because of his physical injuries, not his brain. But he could realistically survive with Hue as his coach. Kaep? Kaep feels salvageable to me. I think if he gets the right coach, Kaep could get his confidence back. He was terrible these past two seasons, but 2014 was marred by a cat fight behind the scenes between York and Harbaugh, and we don’t know what sort of full impact that truly had on the team. Last year was the Jim Tomsula wet fart show, and I refuse to blame pretty much any 49er player fully for their performance last season. Kaep played badly, but there are always so many factors we as fans do not consider, so I’m unwilling to write Kaep off.
That said I don’t think Denver is where he’ll be fixed. Chip Kelly’s simple system seems like a good fit for Kaep, ease him back into simple concepts that don’t mentally demand too much. Some running, too. Kaep needs to run again. Denver? Denver is a better team and he’d be under less pressure (Maybe, they did just win a SB) but I don’t know if Gary Kubiak and Co. are a fit for him as a player. If he goes to Denver he’ll probably just hand the ball off and screw up a bit, then get benched for the Buttfumble. If he stays with Chip, I think he might have a higher chance of success. Of course that means he’s still on the 49ers, and I don’t blame him one bit for wanting out of that place right now.
Good to see you too Sammy. Now if only he would eat John Elway.
This week’s arena games are 0-1 Cleveland Gladiators vs. Tampa Bay Storm (In Cleveland, Ohio; I’ve still got Tampa, because Optimism; ESPN3/Sportstime Ohio. Saturday at 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central).
1-0 Orlando Predators vs. 0-1 Portland Steel (In Orlando, FL; Orlando won by 51 on the road, while Portland lost by 52 at home last week. This game should be a blowout of epic proportions in favor of the Preds; ESPN3, Saturday at 7:30pm Eastern, 4:30pm Pacific).
1-0 Los Angeles KISS vs. 1-0 Arizona Rattlers (In Los Angeles, CA; KISS are 5-5 since starting their first 1 and 1/2 seasons with a 3-24 record, but they have never beaten Arizona; victory for the Rattlers even with LA’s new players from defunct definding champion San Jose. ESPN 2 Saturday 11pm Eastern, 8pm Pacific).
1-0 Philadelphia Soul vs. 0-1 Jacksonville Sharks (in Philadelphia, PA; game of the week, Philly lost to J’ville 56-61 last year in the American conference championship for the right to play in Arena Bowl XXVIII (28) at the Wells Fargo Center, and they want revenge. J’ville’s early season struggles should continue, as the Soul will beat the Sharks; Monday 7pm Eastern on CBS Sports Network).
Kubiak’s system is a wet dream for Kaepernick. It’s super simple for QBs, since half the field is isolated on the bootlegs. It gives delayed option to run, which is great for Kaep, and it’s incredibly easy to throw it away since you are by default out of the pocket. It simplifies vision, since you don’t have 9-12 dudes standing between you and what you want to throw to, and Kaep is strong enough and fast enough to throw on the run while keeping the defense honest.
Kubiak’s system makes the game 12 v 11, since Kaep is both a legit run threat who has to be contained, and a passing threat who has to be defended against. It’s part of what makes Rodgers and Wilson more than they seem. Kubiak and Elway are a great combo to get through to Kaep.
Should he take the pay cut? Yes, he should. He’s not broken, he was in the most retarded front office we’ve seen since ever. We’re talking worse than Jones-dealing-with-Johnson. That melt down in SF is the kind of thing that could get owners kicked from the league in other sports. Denver is a great fit for him, *AND* it’s a great fit to let him get *PAID* down the road. Even next year. 12M this year vs. 20M next.
Unless he’s never getting paid again, he should take that cut and go. And if he’s that unsure of himself, then I don’t want him in Denver, so it’s really a win-win for me.
I agree. Normally, I’d say don’t take the cut. But if he thinks anyone will want to pay him if he gets beat out by Blaine Gabbert, then Kaep might as well sacrifice himself to his tortoise gods or whatever. Do I think he will be good in Chip’s system? He certainly has the potential. But….well Chip Kelly. He does Chip Kelly things. And now, he has a dysfunctional office to back him up. Denver has proven to be more capable and the Broncos system caters to him in the best ways. Take less now, win big, cash in. If Flacco can do it, Kaep can too.
Huh, I need to learn more about offenses
I don’t think he should take a pay cut. He is getting an extra $5 million dollars to sit on the bench, watch more tape, and get the best coaching available. Or he can take a 5 million dollar pay cut to get hit a lot.
It makes zero sense for him to take a pay cut. One more year of riding the pine isn’t going to kill his career. He’ll still get an ~$8 million dollar contract in 2017 when he hits free agency. Why would he want to take a pay cut to “prove himself” when he can just prove himself next year instead and be ahead $5 million dollars?
“He is getting an extra $5 million dollars to sit on the bench, watch more tape, and get the best coaching available.” Chip Kelly is the best coach out there? ok man
Come on, get your head out of your ass. You know he meant NFL level coaching and training. He didn’t specifically mean Chip Kelly.
Oh boy, look out… Also the best training staff goes to the Giants, btw. Just ask Reuben Randle. And any coaching staff with chip kelly cannot be considered a top-tier staff
He may be sure of himself, but I can assure you that there is the huge doubt in his mind that he could have a season-ending injury after a few solid games, which could lead to him getting released and then he might never be right again.
Did you watch Kaep the last couple of years? All the niners did was roll him out to shrink the field so he didn’t have to think. And for throwing the ball away he self sacked (running out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage) at least a dozen times last year alone.
Sammy for President
Make Colin Great Again.
Sammy is an edgelord’s dream
So I’m guessing Sammy used to be Belichick’s pet tortoise.
I can neither confirm nor deny I saw Belichick reading to Sammy from the necronoicon
is that turtle based on the one from the amazing world of gumball?
the episode is called puppy, and it is awesome
In his shell he waits dreaming? Sammy most powerful of the elder tortoises? Zalgo, He comes… to Denver?
Sammy is the one HP Lovecraft left out because he thought that he was too sinister.
I too own a turtle.., well my wife does; and I know that it wants nothing more than to bite a piece of my flesh straight off. It’s a game we play. I put my finger on the glass aquarium and he’s like “I’m f*ck!ng gonna bite you a$$h0le” and so he tries and fails and I’m like “cute little turtle”.
Sammy’s a tortoise, dude. He’s probably EATEN people who’ve called him a turtle.
Just had a random thought occur to me Dave. Did anybody ever tell you that your Tomsula the mic Rula ended up as an avatar on the 49ers reddit for all of last year?
https://www.reddit.com/r/49ers/comments/4dsiyo/fresno_bee_fail_thats_not_navarro/
Yeah. The Jaguars subbredit has like 4 things I’ve made as flair options
I’m still of the opinion that Kaep has hit his ceiling. The dude is an absolute freak of nature, no denying his physical talent, but the exact same problems he’s had since his introductory superbowl run are still there. The locking onto receivers, the “Run if my first read isn’t there” tendency – though that’s been diminished likely by a lot of yelling coaches – the complete lack of awareness for the clock, a tendency to only see one side of the field at the time, you get the idea.
These are all completely acceptable problems in a guy who’s just getting his NFL feet wet, but for a guy entering his sixth season, not so much. One or two of them would be okay, but by-and-large, Kaep hasn’t progressed at all from 2012, and while playing for Jim “Bludgeon” Tomsula certainly didn’t help, I don’t think that it’s fair to heap all the blame at his feet.
Kaep’s a big Mike Vick. He looked like he could be more than that in 2012 and in early in 2013, and for some reason always looks like he’s much more than that against the Packers, but other than that, he’s just Vick 2.0, now with a software update so he’s good with animals. Kubiak is a QB guru who managed to make Schaub look elite, so maybe he could save him, but I have my doubts. He didn’t look like he was progressing at all under Harbaugh, at-best he was staying the same and at-worst he was regressing even in 2013 and 2014, and Harbaugh’s not only a guru himself, he was a guy who saw something in Kaepernick that he thought he could turn into an elite quarterback. If the guy who wanted him more than anyone else couldn’t forge him into something, I’m not sure how much Kubiak can do.
Call me a pessimist, but I’m not too hopeful for Kaep’s future.
I dunno, if Kaep has hit his ceiling then his ceiling helped get him within a yard of a Super Bowl win and a NFC Championship. That’s a good ceiling.
he desperately needs good coaching to fix his confidence though because that is gone.
Dave do you still sneak Sexy Rexy in to the comics? because I feel like I look and rarely see it
I stopped when he got cut from the Falcons in pre-season. He’s not going to see a roster again so it just isn’t any fun to sneak Sexy Rexy into comics anymore, that in-joke is basically done.
Will there be more Sammy comics or even a Sammy week?