Colin Kaepernick has been waiting by the phone for a week, but it’s all been in vain.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, no NFL team has called Kaepernick in the week since he participated in a workout intended to draw interest from teams and end his three-year exile from the league.
Of course, the lack of interest may have little to do with how the former 49ers star looked on the field in Atlanta. Kaepernick and his representatives pulled out of the NFL-organized workout just a few hours before its start, opting to set up their own workout in the Atlanta area and invite teams and media to attend. They cited the NFL’s insistence Kaepernick sign an unusual waiver, plus the fact that media weren’t invited to the league-planned workout, as reasons for the switch-up that left teams scrambling to attend.
The NFL is a league more insistent on dictating terms than any other, and its teams largely take on that same mentality. Kaepernick doesn’t appear to be interested in leaving behind his penchant for challenging authority, making for a difficult marriage between him and any NFL team.
“I’ve been ready for three years. I’ve been denied for three years,” Kaepernick said after his workout last Saturday, imploring the NFL and its teams to “stop running.”
The Niners attended Kaepernick’s workout along with six other teams, and the 25 teams that didn’t see it in person received video of the event.
The fact that no team has reached out showing interest underlines just how bleak the odds are that Kaepernick will be signed, Schefter says.
JETS: Tight end Ryan Griffin was signed to a multiyear contract extension, rewarding one of the team’s few bright spots on offense this season.
Griffin has 28 receptions for 282 yards and a career-high five TDs while becoming a reliable target for Sam Darnold.
The Jets didn’t announce terms of the deal Saturday night, but NFL Network reported it is for three years and worth up to $10.8 million, with $4 million guaranteed.
He had five catches for 109 yards – the first 100-yard game of his seven-season career – and a touchdown last Sunday at Washington. The 16-yard score went viral on social media after he celebrated by pretending the ball was stuck to his right hand before “prying” it free with his foot.
An apparel company even made up a T-shirt that Griffin wore in the locker room this week with the words “Sticky Hands Griffin” behind an image of the tight end’s celebration.
Griffin, 29, was a sixth-round draft pick by Houston in 2013 out of UConn and played six seasons for the Texans before being released in May. He signed with the Jets in July before training camp opened.
LIONS: Detroit signed tight end Isaac Nauta to the active roster from the practice squad and signed former Patriots tackle Dan Skipper to the practice squad.
Nauta was drafted by Detroit in the seventh round this year out of Georgia.
Skipper returns to the Lions after they released him earlier in the week. Detroit claimed Skipper via waivers from the Houston Texans on Nov. 12. Skipper was on New England’s practice squad before signing with Houston in October.
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