NFC West Rumors: Kaepernick, Cardinals

Take this one with a grain of driveway salt, but a sociologist with close ties to Colin Kaepernick says that three teams have contacted the quarterback since the start of free agency.

They’ve asked, ‘Can he play? Does he want to play?’ “ Harry Edwards told USA Today’s Jarrett Bell. “The last question I can’t answer. The first question, absolutely. If Kaep makes up his mind, he wouldn’t only go in and make a team, he’d put pressure on somebody to start.”

Meanwhile, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell Mike Florio of PFT that no teams have made inquiries to the former 49ers QB or his reps. And, as noted by NBC Sports Bay Area, Kaepernick’s girlfriend also says the QB has not received interest from teams. There’s no way of knowing for sure, but it sounds like Edwards might not be as looped in as he claims to be.

Here’s more on Kaepernick and other items from the NFC West:

  • The No. 1 reason Kaepernick is unsigned is that he is not considered to be a starting-caliber player by any NFL evaluator anymore, Albert Breer of The MMQB tweets. Breer went on to explain a hypothesis that we’ve heard many times before: Kaepernick’s controversial views could be overlooked if he was a starting-caliber player, but teams do not want their backup QB to be a potential distraction for the team. For what it’s worth, we learned on Thursday that Kaepernick is supposedly back to his playing weight of ~230 pounds.
  • The Cardinals have five quarterbacks on the roster and they will be keeping all five of them for a while, a source tells Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic (on Twitter). In addition to starter Carson Palmer, the Cardinals also have Drew Stanton, new addition Blaine Gabbert, Zac Dysert, and Texas A&M product Trevor Knight under contract. It’s possible that the Cardinals see one or more of these players as trade bait. It’s also possible that the Cardinals just want to ensure that they come out of the summer with the two best backups for Palmer.
  • The Rams waived quarterback Aaron Murray on Thursday, just two months after signing him.
  • The Seahawks released cornerback Perrish Cox and a bunch of other players earlier this week.
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