Report: Colin Kaepernick would rather play for the Broncos than playing for the Browns or 49ers

According to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick would rather play for the Denver Broncos than the Cleveland Browns or the San Fransisco 49ers.

Barrows states that the Browns are becoming a far less attractive landing spot for the quarterback and that Kaepernick would rather play for the defending Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.

@sherman4949 Implication is that he'd rather play in Denver than Cleveland or San Francisco.

— Matt Barrows (@mattbarrows) March 12, 2016

ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted out recently that Kaepernick would like to play for recently hired Cleveland Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson, and Barrows backs that report up and adds a little more backstory to it.

He says if the Browns made the same trade offer they have on the table now a week ago, that Kaepernick would be a Cleveland Brown. However, the 3-13 Cleveland Browns have managed to become worse since free agency opened on Wednesday.

The Browns have lost starting center Alex Mack, starting right tackle Mitchell Schwartz, and number one wide receiver Travis Benjamin this week. This has made the Browns an even less attractive destination for Kaepernick.

Here is what Barrows had to say about the Cleveland Browns interest in Kaepernick.

Cleveland is offering the 49ers its third-round pick, which is the second pick in that round, No. 65 overall. If that proposal had been made a week ago, it's entirely possible a Kaepernick-to-Cleveland deal would have been completed then.

After all, Kaepernick likes new Browns head coach Hue Jackson, who is pushing his team to acquire Kaepernick, and would like to play for Jackson.

But somehow the 3-13 Browns managed to get worse since the start of free agency on Wednesday. They lost starting center Alex Mack, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and receiver Travis Benjamin.

Kaepernick is willing to restructure his contract and take less money to get out of San Francisco. But after getting sacked 80 times in the last one and a half seasons and having three surgeries since December, he's wary of taking a lower-money deal on a bad team that is losing talent and that may also use its first-round pick, No. 2 overall, on a quarterback.

With Cleveland not really an ideal situation for Kaepernick, the best solution becomes the Denver Broncos.

The only thing holding up a trade for Kaepernick is the compensation. The 49ers want the Broncos second round pick, and General Manager John Elway is not willing to give that up(Maybe they offer Sanchez instead).

If the Broncos came to Kaepernick with the same deal the Browns offered the quarterback, he’d likely sign it in a second. The Super Bowl champions obviously are a better, more stable team and, given that they are picking last in the draft, there's a lesser chance that Kaepernick would be supplanted in the starting role in coming years by a draft pick the general manager is invested in.

The hitch here is Denver's trade offer, which is believed to be its third-round pick and which is 29 spots lower -- worse -- than what the Browns are offering. It's logical that the 49ers want Denver's second-round pick, which is two spots better than the Browns' third-round pick.

Barrows does state that a return for the 49ers is a possibility for Kaepernick, but things could messy between the two sides. Chip Kelly doesn't have patience for players who do not show a commitment to whatever Chip Kelly does, and Kaepernick has made it abundantly clear that he wants no part of the 49ers.

I have confidence in John Elway winning this negotiating battle with the 49ers front office.