TLDR : Cam Rising's best option to probably to stay at Utah and embrace a mentor / backup QB roll.

Pretty sure Kaepernick's best option would've been to stay with the Niners and Rising's best option would be to stay at Utah and somehow find a way to stay relevant for as long as possible.

Not super aware of San Francisco fans political leanings but it seems on the surface it would've been one of the more supportive fanbases / environments for Kaepernick to stick around in. Seems like it would be the same for Rising with regards to Ute fans. If Rising had won a Rose Bowl or had put up more impressive stats then maybe he'd get a look by other P4 teams.

IDK for sure but have to imagine it would be unlikely that another team would pick up Rising because of his injuries and how it seems he's not able to out perform Isaac Wilson. Kaepernick himself dealt with a Thumb and Knee injury in 2015 that caused him to restructure his contract in 2016 with San Francisco that ultimately allowed SF to get rid of him easily in 2017.

Seems the best option for Rising would be to do whatever he needs to do to get his body in the best shape to play and take more of a backup / mentor role to Wilson and just be ready to play if the Utes need him. Seems to me that one of Colin Kaepernick's biggest mistakes with regards to his NFL career was restructuring his contract in 2016 that allowed him to get pushed out by SF in 2017. His original contract was through 2020 and he had decent stats in 2016 even though the 9ers went 1-10. If he had kept his prior contract it seems to me like like Kaepernick could've possibly taken a backup QB role and maybe salvaged his NFL career.

I don't pay close enough attention to the Utes to know one way or another if Rising is already playing a mentoring role or what but the little I've gotten from CB it seems like that's not the case with Rising.