Tampa Bay had no interest in Colin Kaepernick before signing Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB

By Zach Aulakh
Posted May 20, 2017 12:10 am EDT • Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Following Tampa Bay's signing of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported that the Bucs didn't consider signing Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick ranked 26^th among 34 qualifying quarterbacks with a PFF grade of 61.6 last season, 5 spots higher than Fitzpatrick, who managed a dismal grade of 42.1
The former 49er had an adjusted completion percentage of 75.8% in 2016, which ranked 24^th in the league, 4 spots ahead of Fitzpatrick (73.3%).
Fitzpatrick was the only quarterback in the league (minimum 300 attempts) to post a passer rating of under 70 on play action passes. Kaepernick posted a passer rating of 90.7 on such throws.
The former Jet did enjoy more productive seasons in 2014 and 2015, posting grades of 84.6 and 73.7 respectively, and is a more traditional pro-style, pocket passer than Kaepernick, who took off running on 11.2 percent of his dropbacks in 2016, compared to just 4.7 percent for Fitzpatrick.
Fitzpatrick did outperform Kaepernick on deep passes in 2016, where his accuracy score of 43.1% ranked 12^th in the league – another key fit in the Bucs offense.

NFL Mock Draft Simulator
WR/CB Matchups
Fantasy Weekly Rankings
League Sync
PFF Greenline
Player Grades
Premium Stats 2.0

Our exclusive database, featuring the most in-depth collection of NFL player performance data.

Available with

All News & Analysis