Titans coach tries to explain why Tennessee signed Weeden over Colin Kaepernick

Mike Mularkey has a reason for going with Brandon Weeden and not Colin Kaepernick

After it became clear this week that the Titans would need to add another quarterback because of Marcus Mariota's injured hamstring, one of the obvious choices probably should've been Colin Kaepernick. 

Not only do the two quarterbacks have a similar skillset, but you can make a pretty strong argument that out of all the free agent quarterbacks out there, Kaepernick would likely be the one best suited to run the Titans offense. However, if you did try and make that argument, the Titans definitely weren't listening because they decided to sign Brandon Weeden after working out four quarterbacks on Tuesday. 

Besides Weeden, the team also worked out Matt Barkley, Matt McGloin and T.J. Yates. 

The Titans' decision to go with Weeden over Kaepernick sent the internet into a frenzy, and that's mostly because this seemed to be the one situation where Kaepernick was the obvious choice.

During his press conference Wednesday, Titans coach Mike Mularkey was asked if his team had shown any interest in signing Kaepernick, and from the sound of it, they didn't even look into the possibility. 

"I'm not aware if there was [any interest in Kaepernick]," Mularkey said, via ESPN.com.

Mularkey said he didn't look into signing Kaepernick because he didn't want to bring in a player who would be starting from scratch in the Titans offense.  

"I know he's not familiar with our offense," Mularkey said of Kaepernick. "I know T.J. Yates had some experience with it in Atlanta and with us for a couple of weeks."

To be fair, Mularkey doesn't have final say on who the Titans bring in for a workout. According to ESPN.com, that decision is made by the team's front office, and they decided to bring in four quarterbacks who aren't Kaepernick. 

In the end, the Titans went with Weeden because he seemed the most familiar with their offense. 

"As quickly as we could get somebody up to speed in a short amount of time, he had the advantage over everybody," Mularkey said.

One Titans player who probably would've liked to see Kaepernick get a call from Tennessee is wide receiver Rishard Matthews. Matthews went to college with Kaepernick and said on Wednesday that he's spoken to his former college teammate as recently as last week. 

"I know for a fact he's ready to go," Matthews said. 

Ready or not, Kaepernick won't be suiting up for the Titans this week. If Mariota can't go, then the Titans will roll with Matt Cassel as their starter and Weeden as their backup for Sunday's game in Miami. Coincidentally, the Titans are playing a Dolphins team that also had the option to sign Kaepernick after their starting quarterback went down. Following Ryan Tannehill's injury, Dolphins coach Adam Gase went with Jay Cutler because the two spent a year together in Chicago while Gase the offensive coordinator for the Bears. 

The Dolphins decision to sign Cutler hasn't paid off so far with the team off to a 1-2 start.