For such a great offensive mind, Kyle Shanahan has always had the worst luck with his quarterbacks. In light of Tom Brady retiring and their QBs injury problems, the 49ers have a tough decision to make as who to name for their starting QB spot next season.
There’s never an easy, quiet day in the Bay Area when it comes to the quarterback room.
From dealing with an unprecedented FOUR INJURED STARTING QUARTERBACKS in a single season (Trey Lance, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brock Purdy, Josh Johnson) to missing out on signing the greatest quarterback of all-time due to his retirement this offseason, the 49ers have been dealt an awful hand going into next year. Out of all the teams that have to “win now”, the 49ers are right at the top of the list.
Like I mentioned in a previous article about the 49ers, nearly 75% of their team is out of contract within the next two seasons, while the 49ers are also yet to pay one of their quarterbacks in the wake of Jimmy Garoppolo’s departure.
Thus, the 49ers may look like they have a lot of cap space to resign the likes of Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey, Charvarius Ward, Talano Hufanga, etc., but the reality is either Brock Purdy, Trey Lance, or someone we’ve not seen yet (i.e.: a draft pick) will get 20-25% of their entire salary cap soon.
So, the clock is ticking fast on the super team Kyle Shanahan and GM John Lynch have assembled before 4-5 of the guys I just mentioned have to be cut/not resigned.
So, what do the 49ers do at quarterback next season? Stick with Brock Purdy.
I know it’s not the ideal scenario given how raw of a talent Purdy is, and how his throwing arm UCL was completely torn just a week ago, but he’s the best quarterback available for the 49ers to go with at this moment. If Tom Brady didn’t retire, I would have done everything to bring him back to the Bay Area (he’s originally from California) if I was in John Lynch’s shoes.
Brady showed last season that he still has the arm strength and talent to compete at the highest level, and he was arguably the best quarterback in the NFC prior to his retirement. Signing him on a cheap, 2-year deal could have practically cemented the 49ers place in the Super Bowl as the NFC’s representative for the next two seasons.
But, seeing how Brady put a fork in that idea with his retirement, rehabbing and developing Brock Purdy as the starter is the only way forward.
Trey Lance is still way too raw to risk naming the starter (he’s barley played a season of football, both at the NFL and Collegiate level, in almost 4 years), the 49ers don’t have the capital to spend on trading up for another high-end QB talent as they did with Lance, and the QBs on the free agent/trade market aren’t anything special.
Sure, Derek Carr and Geno Smith may be more experienced than Brock Purdy, but do you know how many combined playoff wins the pair have in their, respective, careers? 0!
Brock Purdy already has 2.
And the rest of the field, such as the likes of Andy Dalton, Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Teddy Bridgewater, Case Keenum, and Jacoby Brissett, are just backups. There’s no point in building such a fantastic roster as the 49ers have assembled if they are going to rely on a QB like Mayfield or Dalton to get them to the Super Bowl.
Thus, at the end of the day, the 49ers have kind of been hamstrung into sticking with an injured and unproven (he’s still yet to play 12 games at the NFL level) Brock Purdy as their starter for the present future.
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