John Madden doesn’t understand why Colin Kaepernick was rated low in 2011 draft
By Mike Dyce
John Madden apparently watched a lot of Nevada football games during the 2010 season. Former Nevada quarterback Colin Kaepernick caught his eye.
“When I watched him, he had a strong arm,” Madden tells Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. ”You knew that. There’s a thing where a guy doesn’t have a strong arm, or the guy’s too small, or he can’t run — Kaepernick could do all those things.”
He was surprised to find out that no one was seeing what he saw.
“I remember I said to [Raiders owner] Al [Davis],’What’s wrong with Kaepernick?’ And Al said,’Nothing.’ But I think Kaepernick was just under the radar.”
Davis might have listened because Kaepernick has said he thought the Oakland Raiders were drafting him.
“I always wondered, what was wrong with him?” Madden said. ”Because I couldn’t see anything wrong. I just thought, there must be something wrong with him because he was never in play [among the top prospects]. Wherever the line was, he was next guy.”
Cam Newton was drafted that same year, so Kaepernick might not have been the #1 quarterback overall. With that said, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, Christian Ponder and Andy Dalton were all drafted ahead of him. Dalton was selected by the Bengals right before the 49ers drafted Kaepernick.