Jun 11, 2020

  • Brady HendersonESPN

Seattle Seahawks double-decker Pete Carroll said he regrets not signing Colin Kaepernick in 2017, and denied that a second coming together with the quarterback was scuttled in 2018 considering of the team'southward doubtfulness about whether he planned to go on kneeling during the national anthem.

Speaking with reporters via video conference Thursday, Carroll besides revealed that he received a phone telephone call before in the day from some other team asking about Kaepernick, maxim that hadn't happened until at present. Carroll wouldn't disclose whom the telephone call was from, but it left him with the impression that at least one team is currently interested in the quarterback.

Kaepernick visited the Seahawks in the jump of 2017 after he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers, making him a gratis agent. Carroll'due south reasoning for not signing him at the time was that the Seahawks felt he was a starter and they already had one in Russell Wilson. Carroll added Thursday that he was sure Kaepernick would exist starting somewhere else that flavor.

Kaepernick, who began protesting social injustice and police force brutality confronting black people by not standing during the national canticle in 2016, has yet to be signed since becoming a costless agent. He and one-time 49ers teammate Eric Reid reached a settlement with the NFL concerning their collusion grievances against the league in February 2019.

Carroll made multiple mentions during his hourlong video conference of how he wished Seattle had signed Kaepernick in 2017. One was in response to a question about the Seahawks possibly signing him now and giving him a platform to hash out issues that are currently being protested throughout the country.

"I regret that we weren't the one way back when that just did it but to do it, fifty-fifty though I thought that it wasn't the right fit necessarily for us at the time," Carroll said. "The reason information technology wasn't the right fit is considering I held him in such a loftier regard I didn't see him as a backup quarterback and I didn't desire to put him in that situation with Russ. It just didn't feel like it would fit right. That'south the way I felt nearly it. So I just wish information technology would happen, and I wish we would have been a part of it when the fourth dimension was available and then. We're kind of set up right now, so football-wise, information technology doesn't seem to fit us like I said. But in that location's a lot of time here. We'll run into what happens."

Carroll said it'south clear now that Kaepernick was "correct on point" with what he was protesting.

"He was right on it," the coach said. "He was right on the topics about police force brutality and inequality, and he was right on the subject matter at the time. That'south so obvious at present where maybe all of the flak that flew about not honoring the flag and all the other things that were not even a office of the demonstration or what his intent was at all, that just skewed the whole give-and-take, I don't call back that's around now. It'south different at this time frame."

Carroll revealed that Kaepernick, then however a fellow member of the division-rival 49ers, reached out to him during the 2016 flavour "for some advice about where he would go next." He said that when Kaepernick visited the Seahawks the following spring, Carroll wanted to meet if the quarterback could be a fit in Seattle football-wise and believed that if not, the meeting could however help open up doors for him elsewhere.

"We had bully meetings," Carroll said. "I don't know if I had ever explained information technology in as much depth, only nosotros spent half a 24-hour interval together and he spent time with our people throughout the building and virtually a total day, and he was awesome. He simply backed up even more than of the play that we had seen and the character and his smarts and his togetherness and his competitiveness to the point where it was so obvious that he's a starter in the NFL. That'due south what I think I eventually wound up ... maxim to you guys, that he was a ascendant effigy every bit a football role player and that'due south how nosotros saw him.

"The fact that information technology didn't work out for us, I figured he was going to air current upwardly starting somewhere for sure, and it just didn't happen. And then the residual of that story is one that I regret that that didn't happen in some style. I wish we would have contributed to it because the guy deserved to play. I thought at the time, just our situation, as a backup, man, I didn't feel it was correct at that time. So I had to make that football decision. It was nigh our team and the situation. We had our starting quarterback and all of that, and information technology wasn't going to be the open up competitive state of affairs that I like to think all of our spots are considering Russ was such a ascendant effigy and all that."

As for the 2018 coming together that never came to fruition, Carroll said the topic of Kaepernick continuing to kneel wasn't fifty-fifty brought up in their discussions beforehand. He noted that several Seahawks had already been demonstrating before games, including some who stayed in the locker room during the national canticle. He said the Seahawks' questions to Kaepernick nigh his "plan" were related to football -- east.k., whether or not he'd be content serving as a backup.

"That went out like that was the issue," Carroll said of Kaepernick continuing to protestation. "That was never the event."

In add-on to their coming together in 2017 and the ane that savage through the following year, the Seahawks sent a watch to nourish Kaepernick's workout in Atlanta in November, though the scout didn't make it one time the venue changed that day.

The Seahawks recently re-signed Geno Smith, who backed upwardly Wilson last flavour.

"I similar our setup right now," Carroll said when asked if the Seahawks would consider Kaepernick provided he was willing to be a backup. "I love the way Geno fits together in our role and all that, so it'southward not really available at this time for united states. Simply I wouldn't hesitate -- I've said this ongoing for years -- if Russ ever got tangled upward and couldn't play or something, Kap would have been an extraordinary candidate to take over because of the dynamics of his play. We've e'er actually cherished the unique qualities that players bring, and he had a unique style that we couldn't [accept] respected more. But every bit the backup, I hope he'due south going to get a chance to do that because really he deserves to exist playing."

When asked if he thinks another team volition give Kaepernick a chance this season, Carroll mentioned the call he received from another team earlier in the solar day. His merely previous communication with another social club almost Kaepernick, he said, was before their meeting in 2017 when he called Jim Harbaugh, who coached Kaepernick in San Francisco. Carroll said Harbaugh "glowingly supported" Kaepernick.

"After all of the fourth dimension, the years that take passed, I never received a phone call nigh it," Carroll said. "I never talked to another head motorbus nigh it. I never talked to anyone about it until today. I got a phone call today. I won't tell you who it was only I got a telephone call today asking inquiring about the situation, then I know somebody is interested. And so we'll see what happens with that."