49ers GM John Lynch confirmed in an interview with Pro Football Talk that they were going to release QB Colin Kaepernick whether he opted out of his contract or not.
“Yes, and we had that conversation with him,” Lynch said regarding whether Kaepernick they would have released him had he not opted out. “ So I don’t want to characterize it as he made a decision to leave here. We both sat down and under that current construct of his deal, it was a big number. [Coach] Kyle [Shanahan] had a vision for what he wanted to do, and one thing I think Kyle was very clear and I think Colin appreciated, is that Kyle has an idea of how he’d play with Colin Kaepernick.