Charley Casserly to 49ers on Kaepernick trade: “You gotta take the lowball offer”

Former general manager of the Washington Redskins, Houston Texans, and current NFL Network analyst Charley Casserly shared his thoughts on the San Francisco 49ers' options in regard to disgruntled quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who last month requested permission to seek a trade.

During the NFL Network interview, Casserly said that he feels that Kaepernick has all the leverage because there is an April 1 deadline for the 49ers to get something done and his salary becomes a roadblock for some teams to complete a deal with San Francisco.

The 49ers have insisted that they are willing to eat Kaepernick's salary and keep him on the roster if they cannot find a trade situation that they favor. "If he's here on April 4 we're going to coach the heck out of him, and he's going to work his (tail) off," said new 49ers head coach Chip Kelly at San Jose State's pro day on Wednesday, per Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee.

"When the player has all of the leverage, you have to make a deal on the player's terms. You can't be hard about it. Find out where he wants to go and basically you gotta just take what they're going to give you and get out of there. Otherwise, you're going to be stuck with nothing when you release the player," said Casserly during the interview when comparing the situation to a similar one that he faced when he was a general manager.

When asked if the 49ers would have to take a lowball offer to get Kaepernick off of their payroll, Casserly said, "Absolutely. I'm told they don't want to keep him and if they wanted to keep him, why would you be trying to trade him anyway? You got to take the lowball offer. Otherwise, you are going to release the guy and get nothing."

You can watch the whole interview within the Twitter post below.


It has been rumored that the Cleveland Browns are offering the 49ers their third round selection in next month's draft, but cannot agree on a renegotiated contract with Kaepernick's representatives. On the other hand, the Denver Broncos are likely to be able to renegotiate Kaepernick's contact and it has been reported that Denver values Kaepernick at a fourth-round draft pick. The problem is that the Broncos do not have a tradable fourth-round pick this year.

Meanwhile, the 49ers reportedly want a second-round draft pick for Kaepernick.