Michael Vick on Colin Kaepernick: "The stand that he took has nothing to do with him not having a job"

Michael Vick appeared on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, hosted today by Jason Whitlock. After being asked about Colin Kaepernick, Vick first said that Kaepernick’s protests were “a good thing,” and then expressed his opinion on Kaepernick this year.

“The stand that he took has nothing to do with him not having a job and playing in the National Football League right now,” Vick told Whitlock. “And being frank, Colin didn’t have the best two years his last two seasons. It wasn’t as productive as what we’ve seen him do.”

It’s pretty difficult to say that Kaepernick’s national anthem protests (and the divisiveness of the same) had nothing to do with why he is not on a NFL roster. Of 144 quarterbacks who threw 200 or more passes at age 29 in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders research, all of them, except Kaepernick, were on a roster at age 30, and only five didn’t play (two to injury, two as backups who saw no action, one due to a contract dispute–Bobby Hebert). So quarterbacks good enough to at least start a fair amount of games don’t just not make teams a year later.

The simple truth is that teams don’t think he’s a slam dunk starter, and whether you think it is a concerted effort or teams arriving at the same place, don’t want a backup who gets the attention and will create the divisiveness that Kaepernick will bring. But without the protest, he would be signed, and the evidence seems pretty strong in that regard considering normal NFL and quarterback signing behavior.