Assessing the 49ers quarterback situation, part 1: How the 49ers got here.

I wanted to leave this in the first article of film breakdowns in this series but there is too much going on here that Idecided to separate it out as a sort of primer for where this series headed and

Photo credit: The Associated Press

49ers quarterback history. Let’s break it down. Again. Is it beating a dead horse? Probably. But the history of the 49ers in the Shanahan era, well, really, going back to at least the end of the Steve Young era, is a history that puts the quarterback position squarely at the forefront of nearly all the organization’s dysfunction since then and the past helps inform us about the present day situation, even if that same history is created by the current regime.

Since Steve Young retired in 1999, 19 quarterbacks have taken snaps under center in 23 seasons for the 49ers. NFL fans like to joke around about the Cleveland Browns history with their run of bad quarterbacks but it’s hard to look at the 49ers and think much differently, even if there have been a few successful ones in there.

Going into the seventh year of the Shanahan regime, there have been 6 quarterbacks who have taken snaps under center as the starter due to a plethora of injuries. A quarterback under Shanahan has never been replaced in-season due to performance. And going into the 2023 offseason program and regular season later this year, the 49ers still do not have any clear answers for who the franchise quarterback will be for the future.

They only had two viable quarterbacks on the roster before free agency and both on rookie deals. At this moment, neither are healthy and cleared to do any football related activities but Lance should be cleared by the time OTAs and minicamp start later this spring.

The 49ers have reported that they will have an update on how Brock Purdy is progressing exactly 3 months after the date of his surgery, which he had in early March. By then the 49ers will have mostly wrapped up their offseason program before heading into the pre-training camp dead period.

When free agency started, they signed a 3rd quarterback, Sam Darnold, and what that signals is anyone’s guess.

Everyone knows how we got here, but to recap, the 49ers started the Shanahan regime by cutting Colin Kaepernick. Yes, I know he technically opted out of his contract, but John Lynch, in 2017, was point blank asked if he cut Kaepernick, and Lynch verbatim said to Pro Football Talk:

“Yes, and we had that conversation with him. So I don’t want to characterize it as he made a decision to leave here…Yes, he was not going to be here under the construct of his contract.  We gave him the option, ‘You can opt out, we can release you, whatever.’ And he chose to opt out, but that was just a formality.”

The Shanaban era began with the signing of former Browns, Patriots, and Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer, and passing on one of the two clear franchise changing quarterbacks in the 2017 draft: Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.

The 49ers had plans to sign Kirk Cousins in 2018 but that never materialized after the 49ers started the season 1-9 and were under pressure to find a solution. And passing on two of the consensus top 3 quarterback picks in the 2017 draft is borderline criminal if not downright inexcusable. It’s one of the primary reasons why they are in this situation today.

Cutting Kaepernick, who showed signs of change in 2016 as a pocket passer, signing Brian Hoyer, and passing on two generational talents at quarterback in the same draft was the trifecta of disappointment that kicked off the Shanahan era, only to be cemented with an 0-9 start to the season.

After starting 0-9, they traded for Jimmy Garoppolo, and went 6-1 the remainder of that season after C.J. Beathard put them in the win column with a 1-1 record, and Garoppolo starting 5-0.

In 2018, Jimmy was lost for the year with an ACL tear in his left leg in week 3 in Kansas City. C.J. Beathard took over in week 3 until he was injured mid season. Nick Mullens entered as QB1 for the remainder of that year and the 49ers finished 4-12, earning them the second overall pick in the draft.

He came back fully healthy in 2019 for a Super Bowl run. Then another injury in 2020 sent them searching for another quarterback who could stay healthy. He injured his ankle in week 2 of 2020, came back in week 5 not fully ready to play, then left for good for the season after re-injuring the same ankle in week 8.

That offseason, they flirted with Deshaun Watson (prior to his 22 counts of sexual assault allegations becoming public) Matt Stafford, Tom Brady (apparently this was after the 2019 season), and Aaron Rodgers just before drafting Trey Lance (after many “analysts” and local SF beat writers said the pick was Mac Jones).

Garoppolo started the 2021 season, as Shanahan stated that he would, but was injured again early in the season and again late in the season, on the way to a 10-7 record and an NFC Championship game appearance.

Garoppolo was left unsigned in 2022 and Lance had a rather unimpressive training camp and preseason so the 49ers signed him to be the backup over Brock Purdy. When Lance was lost for the season in week 2 with a broken ankle, Garoppolo took over as the starter, until he was lost for the season in week 13 with a foot injury.

Purdy came in late in the first quarter of the week 13 game, helped the team win 7 games in a row, and was lost for the majority of the NFC Championship game and entire offseason after taking a hit to his throwing elbow just 6 plays into the game (he would finish the game as the quarterback, but he threw 1 pass and handed the ball off the rest of the time).

And now, the 49ers are pretty much back where they started heading into last season with Lance the number one quarterback (for now), and Purdy, fresh off of elbow surgery to place an internal brace on his UCL, sidelined for at least the next 6 months and no clear indication on who will be the starter week one of 2023, though publicly it sounds as if the 49ers prefer Purdy takes over when he’s ready. No one really knows.

The 49ers comments around the situation make everything less clear, with John Lynch saying Purdy “is the clear leader in the clubhouse” who he hopes is ready by week 1 and Shanahan contradicting his GM by saying “Purdy has a chance to miss 8 months” (worst case scenario), and seemingly downplaying Lynch’s comments. For what it’s worth, those two are never really on the same page and Lynch always seems to state his opinion on what he wants versus what the team actually does.

However, had Purdy not been injured and instead was healthy heading into the offseason program, he might have retained the starting quarterback position. I still firmly believe, however, that Shanahan is still very much behind Lance as his near term starter. But Lance will likely have to prove he can still be the guy as he has a lot he still needs to work on and improve on and Shanahan stated that he and Sam Darnold will take reps with the first team in spring practices.

This could mean anything, from little confidence in Lance to getting Darnold up to speed with the offense in the event the unthinkable happens to simply just easing Lance back into practice shape after not running a play from scrimmage since week 2.

No matter what happens, the 49ers have some important decisions to make between now and September, some of which at least will be decided for them on the practice field anyways, and the other of which will be dictated by Purdy’s return. But if the 49ers want to make the best possible decision, both Lance and Purdy will need to iron out their deficiencies as quarterbacks and make Shanahan’s job really tough.

If Lance becomes the guy, he has the higher ceiling and is the more talented prospect of the two. If Purdy is the guy, he will give the 49ers some stability and continuity of offense where they can pick up where they left off. However, it’s unlikely Purdy goes on another 7-1 run to start his second year and both Purdy and Lance (still largely an unknown) both have serious flaws they need to correct if they’re going supplant each other as the clear number one.

In the next series of articles, we’ll breakdown what both Lance and Purdy do well and what they both need to improve on.