Colin Kaepernick still hasn’t landed a job after his workout in Georgia last month, but one of the receivers he threw passes to did.
Jordan Veasy, who was released from the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad a few weeks before the Nov. 16 workout, told the Washington Post that he wanted to join it for two reasons: One, he recognized how unprecedented it was due to the surrounding circumstances and, two, he wanted to run routes in front of NFL scouts to see if it would land him a job.
And Veasy’s plan worked, because the Washington Redskins signed him to their practice squad on Wednesday, which the 24-year-old believes was directly related to the workout.
“It helped,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to be a part of it. Just being a part of the history of it, and I knew it was going to help me.”
News of the workout surfaced last month, and it was initially set up by the NFL. All of the league’s 32 teams were invited, so they could watch Kaepernick conduct drills and throw passes at the Atlanta Falcons’ training facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia.
Many said it was a positive move since the quarterback hasn’t been selected by a team since he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers after the 2016 season.
It’s widely believed that Kaepernick not being picked up has everything to do with the many times he knelt for the national anthem when he played, in order to protest racial injustice.
But in the eleventh hour, the 32-year-old moved the workout to Charles Drew High School in nearby Riverdale, Georgia, because he said he wanted more transparency and the media to be there.
Veasy knew Kaepernick prior to the workout, because they both took a class about Black representation in popular culture at the University of California at Berkeley a few years ago.
Because of that, Veasy reached out to the quarterback’s agent to see if he could be part of the workout when news of it surfaced.
And since the wide receiver returned home to Gadsen, Alabama, after being released by the Bills, he only had a two-hour drive to attend the workout.
Nine days later, the Cleveland Browns flew Veasy in for a potential contract signing but nothing materialized.
“I was going to be in Gadsden running routes anyway,” he explained. “Might as well run ’em in front of some scouts.”
Veasy played for the California Golden Bears at Cal Berkeley, and then he signed with the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2018.
He was also a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ practice squad, and signed a contract with the Indianapolis Colts as well, but was eventually waived.
