Torrey Smith said he did some digging on the Colin Kaepernick trade rumor

New 49ers receiver Torrey Smith said he not only saw the recent report that Colin Kaepernick was on the trading block, he checked out the rumor out before his trip to the Bay Area.

“Asked my agent, ‘Hey, is there any truth to that?’ and also went straight to the source itself in terms of the player to see, ‘Hey, man, is everything good?’” Smith said. He said he called free-agent quarterback Tyrod Taylor, a teammate with the Ravens who is working out in Phoenix with Kaepernick, and asked him to find out from Kaepernick what the situation was.

“That’s not going to happen,” Smith said of the quarterback being traded. “All that speculation stuff -- it doesn’t have anything behind it.” General manager Trent Baalke also was quick to shoot down the report, calling it “ridiculous.”

Smith said he’s known Kaepernick since college when his Maryland squad took on Kaepernick’s Nevada team in the 2008 Humanitarian Bowl. Smith had a 99-yard touchdown run in the contest.

“I watched him since then, and I knew he was a ball player,” said Smith, who also trained with Kaepernick in Miami last offseason. “He’s a great player. I’m comfortable with him. He has a strong arm and I can run. That’s a good combination there.”

Smith said he was both training and working on an advanced degree in Miami this offseason but that he planned to train with Kaepernick in Phoenix at some point.

This story was originally published March 11, 2015 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Torrey Smith said he did some digging on the Colin Kaepernick trade rumor."