Maybe Colin Kaepernick could have saved the Cleveland Browns from one of the worst seasons in NFL history.
Former Browns coach Hue Jackson recently told “The Really Big Show” on WKNR AM-850 that he wanted to add Kaepernick in 2017 after quarterbacks Cody Kessler, Robert Griffin III and Josh McCown combined to go 1-15 the year before.
“I wanted him,” Jackson said, via the News-Herald. “It just didn’t work out. Obviously, those things do have to work from a finance, draft, whatever all that is. And that wasn’t my decision.”
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016, when he was 1-10 as a starter for the San Francisco 49ers and protested racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. He later filed a collusion lawsuit against the NFL – claiming owners were working together to blackball him as a free agent – and reached a settlement, which reportedly was for less than $10 million.
After passing on Kaepernick and drafting DeShone Kizer in the second round of the 2017 NFL Draft, the 2017 Browns became just the second team in NFL history to finish 0-16. Jackson and then-executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown both are black.
Jackson said he felt Kaepernick “deserved an opportunity,” thinking back to when he went 17-6 as a starter for the 49ers in 2012-13, leading his team to a Super Bowl appearance against the Baltimore Ravens. Kaepernick reportedly was seeking a $9-10 million-per-year contract during the 2017 offseason.
“He had tremendous success,” Jackson said. “He is a guy who has stood for something. I think everybody is seeing exactly where he was coming from.”
Jackson, who has the NFL’s second-worst career winning percentage (.205) with a 50-game sampling, also coached the Raiders in 2011.
“I’ve known Colin,” he said. “When I was with the Raiders, we were going to draft him.”
The NFL arranged a workout for Kaepernick last offseason, but he audibled to a last-minute change of venue so it could be filmed for the public eye.
After the recent George Floyd protests, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell encouraged peaceful protesting and admitted “we were wrong” for not listening to players sooner on the issue of racism and police brutality.
“If he really wanted to play,” Jackson said. ‘I think he would have a chance again.”