Seahawks ignoring Kaepernick just weird

Austin Davis.

Say what?

The Seahawks’ signing of a proven stiff like Davis to back up Russell Wilson seems incomprehensible.

Seattle is a team with Super Bowl ambitions and faces a shortening window to get there with its current cast of characters.

So why on earth would you trust Austin Davis to run the show if something happens to Wilson – a bust-the-pocket quarterback who was injured three times last season?

Davis didn’t take a snap for Denver a year ago, but played two games for Cleveland in 2015 and managed to commit five turnovers.

In the meantime...

It’s just a fact that sooner or later, Wilson will take one hit too many and miss some games.

And now, with this absurd addition of Davis, there simply would be nobody to direct an offense that was already challenged with Wilson in the peak of health.

The only other QB on the roster, unproven Trevone Boykin, has been arrested twice within a year, just violated probation and could face time in jail.

Yet Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider have willingly chosen to walk this incredible tightrope — with no net whatsoever if Wilson gets hurt.

THE ELEPHANT in the room here, as almost everyone knows, is Colin Kaepernick.

Unlike the talentless Davis, Kaepernick actually HAS taken a team to the Super Bowl — and ran an offense that racked up 468 yards in that game.

Kap has the second-lowest interception ratio in NFL history. In fact, he managed a 4:1 TD-to-interception ratio last season despite playing for a truly awful team in San Francisco.

So what were the Seahawks thinking?

Kaepernick visited Seattle and Carroll all but guaranteed that the Seahawks would grab

him — a tough, strong-armed and mobile QB who would fit perfectly into the offense if something happened to Wilson.

But then Seattle backed off.

Carroll’s reasoning was almost laughable. He claimed that Kaepernick was too good, insisting he should be an NFL starter.

So why wouldn’t you want that kind of talent on the roster?

It cannot be money, because Kaepernick has said publicly that contract terms would not be a problem, that he simply loves the game and wants an invite to somebody’s camp.

And that, of course, leaves only one issue: Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem last year to protest police treatment of minorities.

THE NFL and its white billionaire owners did not like Kap’s political statement.

Now it appears that their unhappiness with one expression of free speech may cost Kaepernick his career — despite the fact that he’s said he would stand respectfully for the anthem during the coming season.

Meanwhile, a lot of truly crappy quarterbacks enjoy jobs in pro football.

Besides Austin Davis, I mean.

Guys who only dream of Kaepernick’s skills and accomplishments have found teams willing to let them be terrible.

Ryan Fitzpatrick was signed as a backup for Tampa Bay despite throwing more picks in one game (six) than Kaepernick threw all season (four).

Here’s a stat: 144 quarterbacks have thrown 200 or more passes in the year that they turned 29. Of that group, 143 were on an NFL roster when they were 30.

Guess who’s missing?

There is an obvious shadow looming over all of this.

It’s called collusion.

IF THE Seahawks bailed on Kaepernick because the NFL wanted them to do so — or asked directly, as some insiders have hinted — then this league that routinely bullies people could be in serious legal trouble.

Like, a nine-figure lawsuit.

Hey, they knowingly lied about brain damage for years, so why wouldn’t we suspect collusion?

You may not have liked or respected Kaepernick’s actions last year, but he broke no laws — unlike Giants kicker Josh Brown, who was re-signed despite beating his wife senseless — but Kap clearly is good enough to play pro football.

To a man, 49ers players claim he was a great teammate, and he’s promised to keep his political beliefs away from the field.

And yet Seattle didn’t have the courage to pull the trigger.

So we’re left to hope, first, that it was not part of NFL collusion; and second, that Russell Wilson stays upright for every snap.

If he doesn’t, Seahawks fans will find out the hard way just how large a talent and productivity gap exists between Colin Kaepernick and Austin Davis.

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Steve Cameron is a special assignment reporter for The Press. Reach Steve via email: scameron@cdapress.com.