The Big Lead

Colin Kaepernick and Jim Harbaugh to Reunite in NFL With Chargers?

The last time Kaepernick stepped on an NFL field was 2016.

By Evan Bleier

Jim Harbaugh talks to quarterback Colin Kaepernick at Levi's Stadium during a 2014 game.
Jim Harbaugh talks to quarterback Colin Kaepernick at Levi's Stadium during a 2014 game. / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
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Although the last time Colin Kaepernick played in the NFL was in 2016 when Chip Kelly was coaching the 49ers, the last time the controversial quarterback had any degree of success as a pro QB was in 2014 when Jim Harbaugh was in charge in San Francisco.

After leaving San Fran following an 8-8 season in '14 with Kap at quarterback, Harbaugh took over as head coach at Michigan and went 89-25 over the course of nine seasons with the Wolverines.

A Bowl game winner just twice before last season, Harbaugh capped off his second stint as an NCAA head coach by winning the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship with a dominant victory over Washington.

Hired as the coach of the Los Angeles Chargers this offseason, the 60-year-old coach is heading back to the NFL a decade after leaving it. As Harbaugh explained to USA Today, it's his hope Kaepernick will be coming with him.

But Harbaugh already has Pro Bowl quarterback Justin Herbert, who's currently sidelined with a plantar fascia injury to his foot that has kept him off the field for a couple of weeks, under center and is not interested in having Kaepernick as his quarterback. Instead, he wants him as his coach.

“If that was ever the path he was to take, I think that would be tremendous,” Harbaugh told USA Today. “He’d be a tremendous coach, if that’s the path he chose.”

According to Harbaugh, who has always been a vocal supporter of his former quarterback and organized an open workout for him during a spring game at Michigan in 2022, Kaepernick is really thinking about joining him.

"Yeah, we talked a little bit about it,” Harbaugh said. “He’s considering it. He was out of the country. He said he was going to get back to me. We haven’t reconnected since then. That was early, early in the year.”

If Kaepernick does join Harbaugh in LA, there's the slightest sliver of a chance he'll be able to get back on the field at QB if Herbert's injury prevents him from being ready to play in Week 1 against the Raiders.

In reality, that will probably not happen. But there is a chance we will see Kaepernick return to a football field in LA in 2028 when the Olympics come to town.

That's four years away and it'd be great to see Kaepernick involved in football before then, even if it is as a coach.