Apparently there’s no need to look at Colin Kaepernick when you’re as quarterback-rich as the Bears.
It’s been hard to decide which is the bigger charade between the NFL staging a workout for Kaepernick in Atlanta with minimal heads-up and Bears coach Matt Nagy saying he honestly has “no idea” if his team will attend.
More than 24 teams committed to attend, with multiple head coaches saying it publicly. It’s still unknown, though, whether the Bears have any interest.
Nagy is the highest-ranking member of the organization who speaks to the media since general manager Ryan Pace refuses during the season. So it was a dead end when Nagy was asked Friday to explain why the Bears would or would not go to Atlanta and referred it to the man you can’t ask.
”There is another person that is just as high as me, and I’m leaving that to him,” Nagy answered. “So Ryan is handling all of that. That is not where I am at right now.”
Why wouldn’t they go?
With all due respect to former second alternate Pro Bowl fill-in Mitch Trubisky, the Bears are getting some of the absolute worst quarterback production in the NFL and have no viable Plan B.
It was only after a “monster” game — three touchdowns, 173 yards — against the Lions that Trubisky’s passer rating rocketed from 80 to 85.2 this week. Now he can confidently declare himself bottom-10 instead of bottom-five.
Kaepernick wasn’t the same player in 2016 as when he led the 49ers to the Super Bowl, but he wasn’t a scrub, either. Someone who had 16 touchdowns, just four interceptions and a 90.7 rating would be awfully appealing by any other name.
It raises numerous questions about why they wouldn’t be first in line for a seat Saturday.
If they think they’re amply supplied at the position, that’s delusional. If they’re worried it’ll hurt Trubisky’s psyche, that’s disastrous. If Nagy, who called Kaepernick “a weapon,” is intrigued, but Pace refuses, that’s dysfunctional. If it has nothing to do with football, that’s disconcerting.
Any of those might be the reason Nagy won’t discuss it and claims not to know whether the team is attending, even though it goes beyond plausibility that he’s that far out of the loop.
There’s no excuse for the Bears skipping this workout. But then again, there’s been no excuse for them ignoring this option for almost three years.