San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick is one of the fastest-rising athletes in professional sports. He made a quick ascent as he played for Alex Smith in a Monday Night Football game against Chicago Bears in 2012, and there was no looking back for the Angry Ostrich. He had a pretty solid season in 2013, and he got paid in a major way for his one and a half seasons. Kaepernick signed a deal yesterday worth 126 million over six years with 61 million dollars guaranteed. With this new deal comes all sorts of new pressure for the Nevada product.Many people wanted to give their personal hot takes about the contract saying this is another situation where a quarterback got vastly overpaid handicapping the rest of the franchise. Let me give a Lee Corso with a 'Not so fast my friend.' Kaepernick's contract has a ton of money on the table, but he will only be making 19 million dollars a year which is fifth-highest with guys like Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning all making more than him per year. Kaepernick guaranteed money isn't completely upfront either. He gets 13 million for signing and then gets the 61 million paid out periodically through the deal. San Francisco made this deal to ensure they can still add more players and not be hand-cuffed.
Much of the discussion after fretting about the actual money of the deal is whether Kaepernick deserves this deal. The answer to that question is yes. He might not be a top five quarterback yet in the NFL, but he is definitely in the elite category of quarterbacks. The mega-deal had to be done because his former contract currently paid him one million dollars on a rookie deal. If the Niners didn't pay him this price, several other NFL teams would have easily gave him this money. They are putting massive trust in Kaepernick whom they hope becomes an NFL MVP level player at some point. But with leading the charge to a Super Bowl and a with 12-4 record last season with a Super Bowl-contending team this season, there is no reason to believe Kaepernick has already reached his peak.
There will be added pressure on Kaepernick from the Niners fanbase and the national media. When you have a big contract no matter how much it is, everyone's expectations grow to new levels no matter if it is fair or not. This is a little different than a player like Rodgers per say whom already had a Super Bowl ring and an MVP award before he got his major deal. Same goes for Brees. But he is in the Ryan and Flacco category of guys that will need to prove their worth to the NFL public. Kaepernick is set up for the best out of those three teams to win quickly. Although none of them have Seattle Seahawks standing in their way.
The best rivalry in the NFL and quite possibly all of professional sports will have some effect on this contract. If Kaepernick continues to struggle at Seattle, a narrative will start develop with him. It might already be there, but the narrative will grow like a pubescent child. Additionally, odds are we will also see another NFC Championship Game between the two teams.
Kaepernick gets his money and now we await other quarterbacks to get money because they will get paid too. Every quarterback if good enough will get their big contract. That's how things work in this era of the NFL.
Charlie.
