Why Colin Kapernick's Collusion Case Is Different From Tim Tebow

On Sunday Colin Kaepernick's legal time filed a grievance with the NFLPA alleging that the NFL has colluded against him.  Kaepernick's well-publicized kneeling during the National Anthem campaign is cited as the reasoning behind the collusion.

I will go over the particulars about why this case is so incredibly important to the NFL in another post. Right now I want to lay out why Kaepernick's collusion allegations are well-founded and why collusion wasn't an issue with another notorious former NFL player, Tim Tebow.

Tim Tebow's situation was based on the enormous disparity between his level of playing ability and his popularity. But over 3 seasons and 16 games started in the NFL, Tebow proved time and again that he didn't have the ability to be a consistently successful NFL quarterback. He had a completion percentage of 47.9% with a career quarterback rating of 75.3.  In total he threw for 17 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.  For those who may still look at these numbers and see a QB needing time to develop, I see a QB who was very hesitant to make mistakes and consequently made far more plays with his legs than his arm.  He should have been a fullback or a tight end.  He's not in the league anymore because of his stubbornness in wanting to be a QB, not because he was too demonstrative in his religion.

Photo: https://cdn-s3.si.com/s3fs-public/2016/10/07/colin-kaepernick-49ers-starting-quarterback-chip-kelly.jpg

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Conversely, let's look at Kaepernick's NFL stats. It's easily forgotten in the controversy that he actually started 10 games last season for the San Francisco 49ers. In his last season as a starter, he threw for 16 touchdowns and 4 interceptions while completing passes at a 59.2% rate. That was good enough for a QB rating of 90.7.  Apparently it wasn't good enough for the 49ers who let him go after the season was over. For his career his stats are pretty consistent. Over 69 total games he had a QB rating of 88.9.

Kaepernick's season in 2016 with an atrocious 49ers team (who are slightly less atrocious in 2017) was impressive.  How does his QB performance rank with 2017 starting quarterbacks? Quite favorably. He'd be ahead in QB rating over the likes of Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning, Andy Dalton, and Ben Roethlisberger.  He'd also be doing much more favorably than the 49ers starting QB, Brian Hoyer.  Over the first 6 games on the season Hoyer's QB rating is a dismal 74.1.

Kaepernick has a solid QB history in the NFL.  With the paucity of quality backups and, in some cases, capable starters in this year's NFL, at least a few teams should be in a bidding war over acquiring him.