As we heard recently, the Baltimore Ravens are currently without their starting quarterback on the practice field after Joe Flacco suffered a back injury while working out during the offseason that is going to sideline him for an indefinite period of time. While some sources have suggested that he will rest just a week, others gave a timeline of two to six weeks.
With Flacco on the mend, the Ravens only had two other healthy quarterbacks with them in camp, namely Ryan Mallett and Dustin Vaughan, the latter of whom has actually spent time before with the Steelers on the offseason 90-man roster.
Given this situation, head coach John Harbaugh understandably was asked about the state of the quarterback position and what their intentions were to address the current numbers deficiency. One name that Harbaugh had brought up for him to respond to was former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
There is a degree of logic here, of course, as Kaepernick played under Harbaugh’s brother, Jim Harbaugh. As a matter of fact, Kaepernick and Jim faced off against Flacco and John in the Super Bowl a handful of years ago, with the Ravens’ side coming out on top.
“I wouldn’t rule it out at all”, Baltimore’s head coach said of potentially adding Kaepernick. “He’s a really good football player and I believe he’s a really good person”. But less than 24 hours after making that comment, the Ravens ended up signing a different quarterback with ties to his brother.
According to Damond Talbot, the Ravens signed a contract with David Olson, who most recently has played for an indoor football league, but played under John Harbaugh while he was the head coach at Stanford.
Olson did not see the field under Harbaugh at Stanford, but he did get to play at Clemson in 2014. He completed one of three passes for negative-one yard. That is, of course, not exactly the most impressive resume possible, but he did help lead his indoor football team to success.
In truth, the signing makes a lot more sense than adding Kaepernick, for both sides. We are dealing with a very temporary situation with Flacco that could last as little as a week, but which should be comfortably resolved before the start of the season.
That is not a possible that would make sense for Kaepernick, who would clearly be looking for a position more stable…and likely lucrative. The Ravens have very little cap space to sign free agents, to start with.
As for the Ravens, it wouldn’t be beneficial to them to add such a controversial figure to their roster for a temporary situation. The Steelers added Mike Vick two years ago when they needed a backup. The Ravens have a backup.
Still, it wasn’t that far-fetched. Harbaugh said that he spoke to Kaepernick a number of times and “had some great conversations”. Obviously his brother’s connection with him helps as well. But ultimately it probably would not have been in the interests of both parties.
