Steelers are the perfect franchise to sign Colin Kaepernick

An organization like the Pittsburgh Steelers is plenty capable of adding Colin Kaepernick to their locker room.

Throughout NFL history, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been at the forefront when it comes to improving the league for African-Americans.

The NFL’s rule to help give more head-coaching opportunities to African-American assistant coaches was named after former Steelers owner, Dan Rooney, who was also the former chairman of the league’s diversity committee. And currently, Pittsburgh is one of just three teams around the NFL to be led by an African-American head coach.

So if there is any franchise in the league that is built to add someone like Colin Kaepernick to their roster, it would easily be the Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers should at least consider signing Colin Kaepernick.

During his tenure as Pittsburgh’s head coach, Mike Tomlin has dealt with a number of different personalities who drew a bunch of positive and negative attention from the public. Despite these potential distractions, Tomlin has been able to keep the Steelers focused for the most part and he typically has them in a position to contend during each and every season.

So aside from being able to handle the additional public attention that would likely come with signing Kaepernick, Pittsburgh could actually use his skills as a quarterback too.

Currently, the Steelers backups behind Ben Roethlisberger are what one would refer to as underwhelming. Mason Rudolph got his opportunity to shine last season when Roethlisberger missed time with a serious elbow injury and he didn’t do very much during his time on the field that would be considered impressive.

Behind Rudolph on the depth chart is an unproven trio that consists of Devlin Hodges, Paxton Lynch, and JT Barrett. Rudolph is probably going to remain the Steelers No. 2 quarterback in 2020 and his lack of competition for the job will be a big reason why.

So given Roethlisberger’s age (38) and the fact that he’s coming off of a serious injury, quarterback depth is something Pittsburgh should be trying to improve before the start of the 2020 season.

Even if the Steelers signed Kaepernick and he was unable to beat out Rudolph for the No. 2 job, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback would still be a better third option than Hodges, Lynch, or Barrett.

Kaepernick might also not perform well enough in camp to even make Pittsburgh’s final 2020 roster. He hasn’t taken a snap in a game since 2016, so the rust factor could actually make a legitimate impact on his chances.

Even if Kaepernick didn’t end up landing a spot on the Steelers’ regular-season roster, at least the franchise would be able to say they gave him a fair shot to earn a job in the NFL. Which is something no team has even attempted to do during the last three years.