My Suggestion on Settling the NFL Dispute

[JoeStuckInOH]

40. His style of QB is atypical to that of a great majority of teams.

He's much more of a Russell Wilson / Michael Vick style QB than the typical "Pro-Style" (pocket) QBs on many other teams (The Mannings, Brady's, Roethlisbergers, etc...).

Of the 2-3 teams that can currently utilize a QB like Colin Kaepernick with a play style like his WITHOUT retooling their offensive schemes and playbooks; they all already have skilled starting QBs. And Kaepernick (understandably) does not want to take the serious paycut to be one of these teams 2nd or 3rd QB. Within his skillset, he's a very good quarterback and I'm sure he wants compensated as such. The problem is that there's no one looking to buy that style of (middle-aged) QB for what he's asking. He's between a rock and a hard place... but for the right price, he'd have a contract tomorrow.

Yes, he's better (much better) than a good number of quarterbacks currently employed in the NFL. But those other QBs are on teams that have them because they fit into the play style of the existing offense. Modern football players are extremely specialized. It would be a poor decision to select a starting or second string QB that has a different skillset and requires different offensive strategy between the first and second string QB. If there were an injury midgame, which is the entire premise of backup QBs, you'd have to change the strategy you practiced for a whole week prior. It'd be a disaster.

So for Kaepernick to go to one of these 26+ teams, He'd have to again take a pay cut to be a second/third stringer while he retools his skillset. All the while, the team he went to is "gambling" that Kaepernick can make the transition... when they could alternatively be putting those resources into younger prospects that cost less $ and have longer term future outlooks.

I'd say it's about 70/30 (technical/political) that he is not on a team right now.