Kaepernick’s not being discriminated against

The good news for Colin Kaepernick is that he was not behind any ratings decline experienced by the NFL, which largely failed to materialize. The bad news for Colin Kaepernick is that he played too poorly last year to be signed by most NFL teams at his expensive asking price. His mediocre statistics, ill-advised decision to opt out of his mega-contract, and unwillingness to be a backup are the reasons he’s unemployed.

Kaepernick is controversial in that he repeatedly chose to take a knee during the National Anthem, to protest police shootings of African-Americans, to call attention to the problem. Though NFL critics claimed that this led to some big NFL boycott, they’re wrong for several reasons. First, my calculations of attendance showed that it was up, not down. Second, the slight NFL ratings slump was temporary, with strong viewership returning after the historic baseball playoffs and riveting political season and gripping election. Moreover, survey results show that few who actually turned off NFL games did so because of Colin Kaepernick. He’s also claimed he won’t take a knee again on the National Anthem, just in case you were curious.

At one point, Kaepernick was a professional football sensation. He led his team, the San Francisco 49ers, to the 2012 Super Bowl, narrowly losing to Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens. But after signing a huge contract, Kaepernick has steadily declined as a player.

Supporters of Kaepernick are quick to dismiss arguments that he had a poor 2016 campaign. After all, they contend that he threw 16 touchdown passes against four interceptions, which does seem impressive. But here are a few other statistics to consider.

Pro-Football-Reference.com gathers all statistics on passers for the 2016 season. Kaepernick might have a nice TD-INT ratio, but that’s it. When it comes to pass completion percentage, Kaepernick finished 26th out of 30 passers, completing 59.2 percent of his passes, behind Tyrod Taylor of Buffalo and Case Keenum of the Los Angeles Rams.

Kaepernick has a Quarterback Rating from ESPN of 55.2, making him 23rd in the NFL. That puts him behind the much-maligned Brock Osweiler, let go by the Houston Texans, as well as Denver Broncos QB rookie Trevor Siemian, who will have a fight on his hands to keep his job.

Kaepernick did finish in the top 10 … in being sacked (despite starting fewer games than most of the regular starters), finishing second in the league in percentage of times sacked when attempting to pass. That’s why he had the third worst “net yards” in the league (pass yards minus sack yards) for starters.

He rushed for two touchdowns, but fumbled nine times, good enough for third in the league among all quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers. He was first among quarterbacks in rushing yards per game (39, just ahead of Tyrod Taylor), but not much better than Christine Michael (cut by Seattle) and just behind Chris Ivory of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Moreover, given that he started 11 games, 16 touchdown passes won’t help you as much in the win column.

With Kaepernick at the helm, the team won only one game, losing 10, the worst starter record in 2016. Even his teammate Blane Gabbert won one game while losing four games.

Kaepernick announced he would opt out of his deal while the 2016 season was being played, embarrassing San Francisco, who was paying him $19 million per year (he was the 17th highest paid player in 2016), even though he had until March to make a decision. He hoped for an even more lucrative deal, but didn’t get it. An NFL team offered him a job as a backup, but Kaepernick turned it down, even though his statistics were worse, or nearly worse, than every other NFL starter’s last year.

That’s why he’s unemployed, not because he took a knee.

This story was originally published August 25, 2017 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Kaepernick’s not being discriminated against."