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Brady HendersonESPN
Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll said he regrets not signing Colin Kaepernick in 2017 and denied that a 2018 meeting with the quarterback was scuttled due to the team’s uncertainty about whether he planned to continue protesting during the national anthem.
Speaking with reporters via videoconference Thursday, Carroll also revealed that he received a phone call earlier in the day from another team asking about Kaepernick, saying that hadn’t happened until now. Carroll wouldn’t disclose the team, but it left him with the impression that at least one team is currently interested in Kaepernick.
Kaepernick visited the Seahawks in the spring of 2017 after opting out of his contract with the San Francsico 49ers, making him a free agent. Carroll’s reasoning for not signing Kaepernick at the time was that the Seahawks felt he was a starter and that they already had one in Russell Wilson. Carroll added Thursday that he was confident Kaepernick would be starting somewhere else that season.
Kaepernick has yet to be signed since becoming a free agent in 2017.
As for the 2018 meeting that never came to fruition, Carroll said the topic of Kaepernick continuing to kneel wasn’t brought up.
“That was never the issue,” he said.
Carroll didn’t close the door on the Seahawks signing Kaepernick, but said they like their current quarterback situation with Geno Smith returning as Wilson’s backup.
