In this week’s episode of “Any reasoning for Colin Kaepernick remaining unsigned OTHER than the fact that he protested the unjustified killing of black people is a load of crap” (working title), we have Chip Kelly sticking up for his former quarterback.

Before we get into Kelly’s comments, let’s review some of the theories on why Kaepernick doesn’t have a job…

He’d be a distraction He doesn’t care about football He doesn’t even want to play football He’s not a good player He hasn’t come out and said he wants to play football

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let’s see what Kelly had to say about Kaepernick during an appearance on Adam Schefter’s podcast.

Via ESPN.com:

“Kap was awesome. “At the beginning of the year, he made a stance in terms of what he believes is right. We recognized and supported his ability to do that. But he never brought that into the locker room. We had a meeting the day after the Green Bay game that he did it in the preseason, and he explained to all the players his thought process and the mindset of what he was doing. There were some players that agreed with him and there were some players that didn’t agree with him. But after that point, we heard from the outside about what a distraction it is, except those people weren’t in our locker room and it never was a distraction. And Kap never brought that and turned it into a circus or whatever people think. “ came to work everyday extremely diligent in terms of his preparation, in terms of his work ethic in the weight room, in terms of his work ethic in the meeting room. “I really enjoyed Kap. I’ve talked to Kap maybe three or four times since we both left San Francisco. I know he’s working out hard in New York now. I think he’s a really good person and a really good player, and I really enjoyed coaching him.”

Schefter then asked Kelly what he would tell any coach who asked him about Kaepernick.

“Literally what I just said for the last two minutes. I think people that aren’t in there … when you’re not there, it’s easy to speculate on what it’s like, but he is zero distraction. “I like Kap a lot. He’s a really good person. And he really wants to win and he’s highly competitive. He’s got a real good physical skill-set to play the position and has played it at a really high level. “I also don’t think he played at his top level last year because he was coming off three surgeries. I think the Kap this year will be better than the Kap last year… “I would tell anybody that he’s zero distraction and a really talented player who can help you win.”

To recap, Kaepernick is not a distraction, he is dedicated to football, he’s still training in New York and preparing to play and he’s a talented quarterback who should be even better in 2017. He pretty much laid all of those theories to rest in one two-minute sound bite, so we’re going to need to come up with some new excuses.

We’ve now heard from Kelly himself, a coach who had zero tolerance for distractions in Philadelphia (see the LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson trades, come out and say that Kaepernick wasn’t a distraction at all. His teammates echoed that sentiment by giving the free agent quarterback the team’s leadership award.

That should be enough to end the “He’s too much of a distraction and not good enough a player to put up with it” argument, but I have a sneaking suspicion it won’t. Or the “This is only about football” crowd will continue to move the goal posts. Either way, their view isn’t going to change no matter what evidence is place before them.

Head over to ESPN to listen to the rest of the interview. Kelly explains how the Eagles were never close to trading for Marcus Mariota and why he regrets his handling of the McCoy trade.