Colin Kaepernick will get another crack at the NFL via a league-organized workout that will take place on Saturday.

Adam Schefter at ESPN:

NFL clubs were informed Tuesday that a private workout will be held for free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick on Saturday in Atlanta, according to a copy of a memo obtained by ESPN.

The session will include on-field work and an interview. All teams are invited to attend, and video of both the workout and the interview will be made available to them.

Apparently the workout came as a surprise to Kaepernick and his team, as Schefty continues:

Sources told ESPN that Kaepernick and his reps weren’t alerted until 10 a.m. Tuesday. When notified, the quarterback’s reps asked for the workout to be on a Tuesday, which typically is when all NFL workouts take place, since head coaches and general managers can more easily attend. On Saturday, almost half of the NFL teams will be traveling to games, and most of the rest of the coaches and players will be heading to their team hotels to prepare for their games the next day.

Okay, so it’s not perfect, but he’s gonna get his shot, and he seems to be fine with that:

Kaepernick, as you know, has been out of the NFL since the 2016 season. His decision to protest police brutality and racial discrimination by kneeling during the national anthem resulted in a FIRESTORM of think pieces, tweets, and arguments that spanned every platform known to mankind. We wrote a bunch of Kaepernick stuff back in the day, including one of my all-time favorites, which was a politically moderate take on the nature of Kap’s protest.

But let’s advance the story, as we say in the “journalism” business –

Do the Eagles send reps to Kaepernick’s workout? They’ve got their young-ish franchise QB in Carson Wentz, a capable veteran backup in Josh McCown, and a third-string guy they like in Nate Sudfeld. They had an opportunity to snag Kaepernick when Sudfeld and Cody Kessler went down injured in the preseason, but they opted to pull a 40-year-old McCown out of retirement instead, so that should tell you all you need to know about their interest. They’ve had multiple opportunities to take a look at Kaepernick and did not, so it seems like that ship sailed a long time ago.

However, I’d agree with the folks who think Kap still has a place in the NFL based on the fact that a lot of teams have quarterbacks who just flat out stink.

For instance, you can’t tell me that Kaepernick wouldn’t be an improvement over the backup (or even starter) in:

  • Miami (Josh Rosen and Ryan Fitzmagic)
  • Tennessee (Ryan Tannehill and Marcus Mariota)
  • Cincinnati (Ryan Finley and Andy Dalton)
  • Chicago (Mitch Trubisky and Chase Daniel)
  • Indianapolis (injured Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer)
  • Washington (Dwayne Haskins and that crew)
  • Buffalo (Josh Allen and Matt Barkley)
  • Ravens (RG3)
  • Steelers (Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges)
  • Bucs (Jameis Winston and Blaine Gabbert)

Surely there’s a spot for him somewhere.

Maybe he’s been out of the game for so long that he’s no longer a starting-caliber NFL quarterback, and this could be the final hurrah after three years of conspiracy theories and whatnot. But if Kaepernick is open to a backup gig, I see a path back to the NFL for him. The “distraction” will manifest itself as 2-3 weeks of intense scrutiny and media attention, then will die down quickly (see: Reid, Eric).

Either way, it feels like this workout is going to result in something conclusive. Kaepernick finally gets another gig, or his NFL door closes forever.