Joe Montana explains why teams might be shying away from Colin Kaepernick

Montana says Kaepernick's protests aren't keeping him out of the NFL, but something else is

Colin Kaepernick has officially been a free agent for just over four months now, and he still doesn't have a job. 

Although many people, including Seahawks defensive lineman Michael Bennett, have been saying that Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL teams, not everyone feels the same way. 

For instance, take Joe Montana. 

The Hall of Fame quarterback, who spent 14 of his 16 NFL seasons playing in San Francisco, believes that Kaepernick might be out of a job because his skill set has been figured out by other NFL teams. 

"That style of quarterback, everybody thought was going to take over the NFL," Montana told For The Win on Tuesday. "The league has figured out how to defend it. If I'm playing defense, I want the quarterback to run so I can hit him. In the pocket, you can't really hit him."

The four-time Super Bowl winner then went on to compare Kaepernick to another quarterback who didn't last long in the NFL: Tim Tebow. 

"You look at Tim Tebow -- he's a great guy, does a lot of great things, but when you complete 40-something percent of your passes, even in the low 50s, you're not going to make it [in the NFL," Montana said. 

For the record, Kaepernick's career completion percentage of 59.8 percent is more than 10 points higher than Tebow's career number of 47.9 percent, and it's not like you can't succeed with Kaepernick's completion number. All you have to do is look at Montana's career to prove that. 

Back in 1988, Montana finished the season with a completion percentage of 59.9 percent, and things seemed to work out pretty well for him: The 49ers quarterback went 8-5 as a starter and led the team to a 20-16 win over the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII. 

On the protesting side of things, Montana did concede that Kaepernick's actions in 2016 might be playing a part in why he doesn't have an NFL job right now. 

"Everyone thinks it is the stance he took; one of the things you don't look for is distractions in the locker room," Montana said, via the Sporting News. "You can go back to Bill Walsh and as soon as there were guys that weren't fitting in what he was looking for, it didn't matter how good you were. You weren't on the team for very long. You have to have people who want the same thing, fighting for the same thing and willing to put in the time."

Although Montana doesn't seem to optimistic about Kaepernick getting a job, he does see one situation where a team might come calling before the beginning of the 2017 season. 

"I think [if] there's an injury somewhere, he probably gets in," Montana said. "It comes down to his play as much as anything."

The problem for Kaepernick is that there haven't been any teams willing to bring him in to check out his play, which makes it pretty much impossible to earn a roster spot. In the four months since he's been a free agent, the Seahawks are on the only that have invited him in for a tryout.