San Francisco 49ers GM Trent Baalke Says Colin Kaepernick Will 'Absolutely' Be On Roster Next Season

Speaking at the 2016 NFL Combine in Indianapolis on Wednesday morning, San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke was asked about the future of quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Despite all of the speculation that the team would release him and that Kaepernick reportedly wanted to play for the Jets, Baalke said that isn’t the case.

“I think the good thing is we’ve got two guys that have gone into games who’ve proven they can play, and Colin’s done some awful good things through his career, won some big games for the San Francisco 49ers and [we] expect him to come back,” Baalke said at his podium availability.

“The main focus right now is health, getting him healthy. He’s done a good job with his rehab. Talking to the medical staff, that seems to be going very well, and [we] just look forward to getting him back and getting him working with this coaching staff.”

Kaepernick posted the worst season of his career in 2015, completing just 59 percent of his passes for 1,615 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions before giving way to Blaine Gabbert in Week 9. It was long expected that he would be cut, but that changed when Chip Kelly got the head coaching job. Kaepernick could excel in Kelly’s system as it fits his skill set perfectly.

One more interesting tidbit from Baalke’s media availability was his response to speculation that the team is interested in Sam Bradford.

“We feel pretty good with the guys we have but we’re always looking,” he said. “We’re always looking, and we’re certainly going to scour this draft and the free agent market that’s out there. There’s obviously not a lot of quarterbacks that make it to free agency, as we know, but we’re going to look at every avenue.

“Quarterbacks [of] all shapes and sizes have had success in this league. We’re going to look at every one. We’re not going to pigeonhole ourselves and say they got to be 6-3 or taller, or 6-4 or taller, they’ve got to be 220 [pounds] or bigger. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to look at everybody that’s available and put a value on them for what we think their value is for us.”

Sounds like it’s certainly possible that there could be a reunion in San Francisco between Kelly and Bradford which would make Kaepernick one of the most expensive backups in NFL history.