HENDERSON, Nev. — Quarterback Derek Carr on Tuesday endorsed the Raiders giving Colin Kaepernick a workout at the team facility two weeks ago and said, “I think he’d be great” in the locker room, should Las Vegas sign him.
Kaepernick, who took a knee to protest police brutality and racial injustice during the pregame national anthem, has not played in the NFL since 2016, and the Raiders are the only team to have worked him out since.
“I don’t want to speak for everybody in that kind of sense — I don’t want someone mad at me for saying, ‘I think it would be great,’ — but I know him and I would get along great,” Carr said Tuesday, following the Raiders’ first mandatory minicamp practice. “I know we have in the past, and I think we would again. I think for the most part, I think he’d get along great with our guys.”
Carr said he has been familiar with Kaepernick since the two played in the Western Athletic Conference, with Fresno State and Nevada, respectively, in 2009. Kaepernick was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round (No. 36 overall) of the 2011 draft while Carr was taken by the Raiders in the second round (also No. 36 overall) three years later.
“I remember our days back then, and just watching him and what he did in college and getting to know him and talking to him on the phone,” Carr said. “I’ve told you guys, I’ve loved my time with him. I think he’s a great guy. He’s been great to be around. I’ve enjoyed being around him, talking with him, competing against him.”
Carr’s older brother David spent an offseason with Kaepernick with the 49ers after the 2011 draft.
“He’s like, ‘I love Colin, he’s awesome,'” Carr said of his brother’s thoughts on the QB.
Carr said he did not meet with Kaepernick the day of his May 25 workout, but he was given a heads up about it by new Raiders coach Josh McDaniels.
“I literally said the same thing I’m telling you — I’ve enjoyed my time around him, I love him,” Carr recalled. “Him and I would get along great.
“I think they did it in the afternoon,” Carr said of the workout, “and I was already on the golf course with my two older boys.”
The Raiders currently have four quarterbacks on their roster — Carr, Nick Mullens, Jarrett Stidham and Chase Garbers.