Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll says he regrets not signing former NFL quarterback . Kaepernick visited the team in 2017 after opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers.

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“I regret that we weren’t the one way back when that just did it just to do it, even though I thought that it wasn’t the right fit necessarily for us at the time,” Carroll said. “The reason it wasn’t the right fit is because I held him in such a high regard I didn’t see him as a backup quarterback and I didn’t want to put him in that situation with . It just didn’t feel like it would fit right. That’s the way I felt about it. So I just wish it would happen, and I wish we would have been a part of it when the time was available then. We’re kind of set up right now, so football-wise, it doesn’t seem to fit us like I said. But there’s a lot of time here. We’ll see what happens.”

Carroll says, in 2017, he thought Kaepernick was too skilled for a backup position and was confident he would be signed as a starter elsewhere. 

In regard to the Seahawks signing Kaepernick now, Carroll had this to say: “I like our setup right now. I love the way Geno [Smith] fits together in our role and all that, so it’s not really available at this time for us. But I wouldn’t hesitate — I’ve said this ongoing for years — if Russ ever got tangled up and couldn’t play or something, Kap would have been an extraordinary candidate to take over because of the dynamics of his play. We’ve always really cherished the unique qualities that players bring, and he had a unique style that we couldn’t [have] respected more. But as the backup, I hope he’s going to get a chance to do that because really he deserves to be playing.”

[Via]