Carroll: Seahawks considering veteran QBs as backup options

Published 1:30 am Monday, May 15, 2017

RENTON — There are solid reasons the Seahawks have been linked to possibly signing Colin Kaepernick.

On Monday, Pete Carroll gave the most concrete one yet. Seattle’s coach did with a few comments on the radio more than the rest of the NFL has done for the former Super Bowl, seemingly estranged quarterback this offseason.

Carroll, who sees his team as a trailblazer going its own way seeking “doing it better than it’s ever been done,” was asked on the team’s flagship station KIRO AM Monday if Seattle would consider Kaepernick or Robert Griffin III, another unsigned, veteran QB.

“We’re looking at everybody really. We are. We really are,” Carroll told the “Brock and Salk” morning show. “We’ve been tracking everything that’s going on. We have cap and roster issues and stuff like that that we’re still trying to make sure that we manage properly. But quite frankly, yes, we are looking at all those guys.”

The Seahawks need a veteran backup to Russell Wilson. Trevone Boykin played more than expected last season as an undrafted rookie, after issues on the offensive line cause Wilson to get somewhat seriously injured for the first time in his career; a high-ankle sprain and sprained knee ligament in the first three games. Boykin has spent this offseason in legal trouble in Texas.

Court records from Bexar County, Texas, show he has a motion-to- revoke-probation hearing June 6 there. That is the fifth of the Seahawks’ seven days of organized team activities on the field at team headquarters within the next month.

Carroll and general manager John Schneider have said they want to add a quarterback to compete for the backup job. That backup having more experience than Boykin remains important, because the ability of Seattle’s offensive line to keep its quarterbacks from getting beat up remains the team’s biggest issue entering 2017.

Kaepernick has curiously remained a free agent reportedly without – or conflicting reports say, with — so much as a sniff of known interest from other teams this offseason.

The San Francisco 49ers basically gave up on their Super Bowl passer from four years ago in January, following their regime change to new GM John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan.

Kaepernick, 29, went 1-10 in 11 starts while completing 59 percent of his passes with 16 touchdowns and just four interceptions for a putrid 49ers team last season.

His former backup and temporary replacement in San Francisco, Blaine Gabbert, signed a low-risk, low-dollar deal with Arizona last week. Meanwhile, Kaepernick remains out of work.

It’s curious, in the least, that apparently no one else in the league has deemed Kaepernick worthy of at least consideration as one of its top 64 quarterbacks — that is, one of the top two QBs on any of the NFL’s 32 teams. This, a year after he took a controversial stance against social injustice in our country. Kaepernick kneeled during national anthems immediately before games, sparking a national debate that still lingers.

Some Seahawks have already voiced – and displayed – their support for Kaepernick.

Defensive back Jeremy Lane showed he backed Kaepernick’s actions last summer by sitting on Seattle’s bench in Oakland during the national anthem before the 2016 preseason finale.

And Kaepernick’s ongoing unemployment this offseason has been more than curious to two of the most vocal and influential members of the Seahawks’ locker room.

Michael Bennett and Richard Sherman would, like Lane, seemingly welcome Kaepernick in Seattle.

In March, Bennett, the two-time Pro Bowl defensive end who has been increasingly active on social issues, told NFL Network he was surprised Kaepernick was unsigned and that “teams should be happy to have a leader like him.”

“Yeah, it does surprise me. Kap is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL,” Bennett said. “He’s also one of the most genuine people you could possibly meet. All the stuff that he’s doing off the field, the things that he’s doing in the communities, he’s just serving everybody. Teams should be happy to have a leader like that, a guy who’s dedicated to the people around him and he’s dedicated to making their life better. The only thing he could do is make the offense even better.”

Later that month, Sherman went on ESPN and, among other things, echoed what many around the league are saying: that Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL teams.

Seattle and Carroll are not interested in Kaepernick — or Griffin, deposed by Washington and now Cleveland in his five-year NFL career — or any other quarterback to start.

Wilson is entrenched as the Seahawks’ $87.6 million franchise cornerstone who has started two Super Bowls, won one, and remains in the prime of his career.

But many of the league’s players support Kaepernick and what he stands for, if not his actions to represent his views.

Carroll opening the door a crack and publicly stating the Seahawks “are looking at” Kaepernick among all available veteran QBs sends yet another signal to all NFL players that despite what the prevailing winds in the league may be, Seattle remains a player- friendly place to work.

EXTRA POINTS: The team announced it signed wide receiver Speedy Noil and re-signed fullback fullback Kyle Coleman, whom they waived last year as an undrafted rookie. Both tried out last weekend during rookie minicamp. Noil entered Texas A&M a nationally renowned recruit, led the Aggies in all-purpose yards as a freshman, then tailed off and got in trouble with his coach. … The Seahawks cut undrafted rookie quarterback Skyler Howard and fullback Brandon Cottom to make room on the 90- man offseason roster for Noil and Coleman.