Denver Broncos: 4 options for a quarantine QB in 2020

3. Colin Kaepernick

Coming in at no. 3 on this list is my personal favorite option — Colin Kaepernick.

There will be a large number of NFL athletes and coaches following Kaepernick’s social justice pursuit with their platforms this season, and in that regard, I no longer think he’s a publicity threat to NFL teams.

Even though that’s not a good reason for teams to have blacklisted him up to this point, it seems to be the primary reason beyond just Kaepernick’s football abilities. Even though Kaepernick was not playing at an MVP level when he last took an NFL field, he was playing better than a lot of quarterbacks that have remained in the league or have been signed by other teams in the last four years.

Even considering Kaepernick is going to be coming in a bit cold, there are many reasons to think he could work as a fourth quarterback (or third, or second) in Denver behind the current guys. I wrote an entire post about it earlier in the offseason.

Say what you want about this situation, there are a lot of things you can read into to believe the Broncos might do something like this if Kaepernick is amenable to it.

The Broncos have a number of coaches who have worked directly with Kaepernick in the past, including head coach Vic Fangio (former 49ers defensive coordinator) and running backs coach Curtis Modkins (Kaepernick’s last NFL offensive coordinator).

The presence of those coaches is a major factor and it can’t be overstated that the Broncos were one of a few teams to send a pro scout to Kaepernick’s workout just last year. Even though the location of the workout moved and the scout was not able to ultimately attend, the Broncos had him take a not-so-convenient detour and trip to the original workout site to watch Kaepernick workout.

There is also the fact that the Broncos were among the finalists to apparently sign pass rusher Aldon Smith this offseason. Smith wound up signing with Dallas, but that shows the Broncos are willing to bring in guys who might not be so popular among the fan base for off-field things if it makes sense football-wise.

It’s also just as reasonable to think the Kaepernick ship has sailed in Denver, and that his previous meetings in Denver with John Elway were the final nails in the coffin of his time there.

Consider also, though, that the Broncos brought back Brock Osweiler when it made sense, and in the aforementioned Mike Klis post, he mentions that the team did ‘due diligence’ on Trevor Siemian before Siemian ultimately signed with the Titans.

If it makes football sense, I think the Broncos would do it. If Kaepernick is amenable to do it, I don’t think there are many better options if the Broncos need a break-in-case-of-emergency QB. This would also give them direct access to watching him work out, and they could promote him to more than just a quarantine QB if things go well.

Kaepernick matches the size and athletic profile of both Drew Lock and Jeff Driskel, so the offense wouldn’t have to change for him, either.