Colin Kaepernick new 49ers contract to be $15-16 million minimum annually
By Mike Dyce
The San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Colin Kaepernick have begun talks to work towards a contract extension. Kaepernick is grossly underpaid still playing under his four-year $5.9 million rookie contract and will make only $973,766 in 2014.
That doesn’t sound like the salary of a quarterback who has led his team to two NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl appearance. Kaepernick could be looking for a large pay increase but how much?
From Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News:
"Kaepernick said during Super Bowl week that he’s open to striking a balance between what he wants and what’s best for the team salary structure, and from what I’ve heard, nothing said over the weekend contradicted that.Of course, the parameters of “balance” could mean different things to both sides–does that mean Kaepernick will ask for $20M per instead of $22M? Or does it mean he’ll talk about $16M-17M per with steps to get him up to $20M?Either way, it sounds like $15M to $16M is the floor for an average salary here, which is a lot higher than I originally thought and would bring Kaepernick near the top echelon of QB salaries."
That is a lot of money and would put him amongst the highest paid quarterbacks in the NFL.
[UPDATE:] Editor’s note, the post said “three straight NFC Championship games.” The 49ers have been to three straight NFC Championship games, but Kaepernick was only the quarterback for two of them. Our apologies.