San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's tenure with the franchise now looks like it may be coming to an end, as it appears that all signs are pointing to him getting traded. New head coach Chip Kelly's comments during media availability this week suggested that the concept of trading Kap has become a much more real possibility than in the past.
"If he's here on April 4 [at the start of the offseason program] we're going to coach the heck out of him, and he's going to work his [tail] off," Kelly at the San Jose State Pro Day workout, via Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee.
As Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio points out, this is a much different approach that came from Kelly last month. When the former Philadelphia Eagles head coach was asked about the potential for Kelly to not be able to work with the quarterback in the offseason, he dispelled the notion that he might not get the chance to groom the quarterback during the offseason.
"'Is he on the team? Is he not on the team?'" Kelly said on February 25. "It's never been a question. I'm excited to work with Colin. I've never thought that, 'Hey, I'm going to go to San Francisco and he's not going to be there.' I don't know why everybody else looks at it that way, either. . . . Kap's really good. He had the ball on the five yard line, taking the team in to win the Super Bowl. You can just look at the tape and know how talented he is. Our job is acquiring talent, not getting rid of talent."
Just last week, Kap was reportedly excited about the idea of working with Hue Jackson and the Browns in Cleveland, but that seems to have died down in the days following. Wherever the quarterback ends up, the head coach there will have an intriguing prospect on their hands.
