A few days after Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh alluded to potentially finding former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick a spot on his coaching staff for the 2024 season, those comments are being walked back. "I love Colin, and always will … but he’s not going to be on the coaching staff … [or] be playing on the roster either," Harbaugh said after Thursday’s practice.
Kaepernick hasn't played in the NFL since 2016 but has been vocal about wanting to return to the game. His former coach, Harbaugh, was seemingly enthusiastic about the 36-year-old Kaepernick returning to the game as a coach and that they'd "talked a little bit about it" earlier this year, shortly after Harbaugh took the Chargers job.
Harbaugh also expressed that he feels Kaepernick would be a "tremendous coach." The San Francisco 49ers selected Kaepernick in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft, which was Harbaugh's first year as their head coach.
Kaepernick didn't make a start until the middle of the 2012 season, when veteran starter Alex Smith got a concussion and the second-year quarterback took the chance to start and ran away with it.