As the Seahawks were considering signing Colin Kaepernick, we explored the possibility that they might choose not to sign him because they didn’t want to risk a quarterback competition developing with Russell Wilson. Now that the Seahawks have decided not to sign Kaepernick, there’s more talk that they didn’t want him competing with Wilson.
Former Seahawks quarterback Brock Huard, who now works in sports radio in Seattle and hosts Pete Carroll’s weekly radio show during the season, said on the air Monday that he thinks the Seahawks’ decision to pass on Kaepernick came in part because quarterback is the one position where Carroll wouldn’t want competition.
“As much as Pete wants to compete at every position, quarterbacks are different. And especially when you’ve got a $20 million quarterback, and a guy that you know is your franchise, a guy that you believe in deeply,” Huard said on 710 ESPN. “It would have been too much. Too much for a locker room, for a quarterback room that doesn’t need it.”
To be clear, no one is saying Kaepernick is just going to waltz into Seattle and depose Wilson as the starter. But with the recent reports that the Seahawks’ defense isn’t big on Wilson, it’s easy to envision a scenario in which Wilson has a rough game, and suddenly there’s chatter that maybe some folks in the locker room think it’s time for Kaepernick to get a shot. That’s the kind of chatter that football coaches hate.
And that’s the kind of chatter that won’t exist as long as the quarterback depth chart behind Wilson consists of Trevone Boykin and Austin Davis. Unlike Boykin and Davis, Kaepernick has been a successful NFL starter. And now he may be a victim of his own success.