When John Elway puts his foot down, you can be sure it’s not budging.
According to Adam Schefter, Elway and the Broncos have said that they will pay $7 million of Colin Kaepernick‘s $11.9 million guaranteed salary in 2016, but no more. So if Kaepernick is going to end up in Denver, someone else is going to have to split the bill.
Both the Broncos and Kaepernick would like the 49ers to pay the $4.9 million remaining in his salary, but they’ve refused, saying that they don’t want to pay for a player they’d rather be on their team. Likewise, Kaepernick has been unwilling to give back any of the salary that became guaranteed last week.
For now, it seems, the deal is in a holding pattern until one of the three parties budges.
Once they do, though, Schefter says a high-level source has stated “it would take two seconds” for the teams to finalize the trade. As reported yesterday, Denver and San Francisco have already come to terms on a deal that would send a mid-round pick to the 49ers in exchange for Kaepernick; as soon as the salary situation is worked out, the sides could “finalize it with one phone call.”
With so much smoke, it’s hard to imagine that there’s no fire. At this point, if a deal does not get reached, it would be a surprise.