On Thursday, Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh brought up the possibility of signing Colin Kaepernick to help offset the team's rapidly depleting quarterback depth chart.
While not much is known about Olson, who played college football at Stanford before transferring to Clemson, the signing does make a few things clear at the moment. It's unlikely the Ravens will sign Kaepernick for now and, given Baltimore's choice in camp arm, it's also likely that Joe Flacco's back injury isn't as bad as expected. As Rapoport and NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported earlier this week, Flacco's back injury could keep him out between three and six weeks. Flacco told reporters Friday that he hopes he's only sidelined a week with the back issue.
On Inside Training Camp Live on Friday, Rapoport suggested the door is not entirely closed on a Kaepernick-Ravens union. That pairing could occur if Flacco's back injury turns out to be serious and the team wants to bring in serious competition for backup Ryan Mallett. At the moment, though, there is little incentive for Kaepernick to come in for a temporary third-string situation.
"We'll just see how it plays out," John Harbaugh told reporters Friday. "It has to do with our need. Joe's day to day. Do we really need to make that move or not? That's a decision that really has to be made. I think there's a lot of layers to it, just from a football standpoint, and I'll focus on the football part of that. If there's other layers, then I think that's taken into consideration at the appropriate level."
For his part, Flacco would like to see Kaepernick get another chance in the NFL -- just not necessarily as a potential stand-in for him in Baltimore.
"You can do whatever you want at this position because I feel like I'm the quarterback and it doesn't really matter," Flacco said. "I'd like to see Colin get back in and at some point get another shot. I wouldn't want that to be here, I don't want him to get another shot here, but yeah, he can come here and have some fun. I think it would be a good spot for him."
What remains unclear is what kind of opportunity Kaepernick is looking for, or how serious any of the discussions he has had with teams actually have been.
