SANTA CLARA – When is it not all about the 49ers’ QB1? When the quarterbacks are inside their meeting room.
Every year, it undergoes a metamorphosis, all in search of the right mix to produce an ideal starter, on any given Sunday, any given season.
A healthy Brock Purdy is that quarterback, in coach Kyle Shanahan’s ideal scenario for 2023.
As last season’s four-quarterback relay showed, you better have a great committee of quarterbacks and coaches. Call it a team’s subcommittee, or committee of subs, if you will.
Quarterbacks come and go (see: 15 overall since 2017). Expectations remain the same: lead the 49ers to their first Super Bowl win since Steve Young last did so in the 1994 season.
ROOM WITH A VIEW
This year’s dynamic offers a radically different QB room.
Returners: Purdy and Trey Lance, along with position coach Brian Griese and his assistant, Klay Kubiak, Klint’s younger brother.
Newcomers: Veteran quarterbacks Sam Darnold and Brandon Allen, along with assistant Klint Kubiak as the passing-game specialist.
Departures: Two-time NFC Championship Game starter Jimmy Garoppolo, journeyman backup Josh Johnson, and former passing-game coordinator Bobby Slowik.
Presiding over that room is their seventh-year coach, Shanahan.
“I don’t want to compare it to other years,” Shanahan said after Tuesday’s practice, “but we have two guys who are talented enough to be taken in the top five of the draft, and we have another guy who played like it last year.”
Translated: Great expectations were immediately bestowed upon No. 3 overall draft picks Darnold (2018, New York Jets) and Lance (2021, 49ers), while Purdy performed like a top-level quarterback only seven months after being taken with the 262nd and final pick in last year’s draft.
“I like the three guys we got,” Shanahan added, “and I’ve always been a fan of Brandon Allen. Just watching him throughout his career and to be able to get him in here also, I feel really fortunate with our four.”
Call them The Fortunate Four. Ultimately, that foursome will be whittled down, much of that depending on how and when Purdy returns from the March 10 surgery on his throwing elbow.
NOT A TRUE QB COMPETITION
If Purdy’s recovery stays on track, that could make any quarterback competition relatively moot if he’s available for the Sept. 10 opener at Pittsburgh.
Contingency plans are in place. Lance opened OTAs taking all the first-team reps, while Darnold gets his feet wet with his third team in four years. Allen is only getting a couple of snaps in team drills, which was enough for Purdy last summer to show his potential, mind you.
It is not a bitter battle. Lance and Darnold high-fived each other as they rotated spots during Tuesday’s practice, and all quarterbacks speak highly of their growing chemistry and communication.
In Tuesday’s 7-on-7 drills, Purdy was an observer while Lance, Darnold and Allen carried out their jobs in mundane fashion. Nothing was revolutionary, although amateur quarterback coaches raved about Lance’s revised throwing mechanics after studying social media videos. Nothing was cringeworthy, either.
I GOT YOUR (QUARTER)BACK
Afterward, the top three QBs were asked about that revamped quarterback room, which saw Garoppolo come and go with injuries since 2017 before his free agency departure this spring for the Raiders.
Purdy said the “dynamic is great,” attributing that to the diverse background of each quarterback, such as Allen backing up Joe Burrow in Cincinnati, Darnold previously working at Carolina under long-time NFL quarterback Josh McCown, and Lance providing familiarity.
“We all get along really well and I’m really excited moving forward with this group of guys,” Purdy said.
Added Darnold: “It’s just really cool the conversations that we get to have in the quarterback room, especially like you mentioned with Coach Griese in there, just being able to talk about the position and talk about how to kind of deal with those things and deal with adversity and even deal with success at times.”
Darnold’s arrival did not cast Lance onto the offseason trade market, as some suspected it might.
“I knew where I wanted to be. I just want an opportunity to compete,” Lance said. “I love it here. I love the coaching staff. I love working with Griese and Klay and now Klint as well.
“Love the quarterback room, love the guys in the locker room,” Lance continued. “No doubt for me, this is absolutely where I want to be.”
QB HISTORY SINCE 2017
This is where a lot of quarterbacks have been. A year-by-year account of who’s had entry into the 49ers’ QB club:
2017: Brian Hoyer, Matt Barkley, C.J. Beathard, Nick Mullens, Garoppolo
2018: Garoppolo, Beathard, Mullens, Jack Heneghan, Tom Savage
2019: Garoppolo, Beathard, Mullens, Wilton Speight
2020: Gaeoppolo, Beathard, Mullens, Broc Rutter, Josh Johnson, Josh Rosen
2021: Garoppolo, Lance, Rosen, Johnson, Nate Sudfeld, Tyler Bray
2022: Garoppolo, Lance, Purdy, Sudfeld, Kurt Benkert, Jacob Eason, Johnson
It’s not as if the title of “49ers quarterback” has served as a stepping stone to fortunes elsewhere, unlike some 30 years ago when Steve Bono and Elvis Grbac were following Joe Montana’s path to Kansas City.
The only quarterbacks who’ve started in the NFL after leaving the 49ers since 2017: Hoyer and Mullens. Hoyer went 0-6 to start the Shanahan era, then 0-3 in spot starts with Indianapolis and New England. Mullens lost his lone start with the 2021 Cleveland Browns, a year to the day after he sustained a torn UCL in his 49ers finale, an injury that required the same internal brace repair as Purdy’s.
PURDY’S TUTORS
Purdy delivered eight wins upon replacing Garoppolo, then came the UCL tear on the 49ers’ first possession of a 31-7 defeat to the Super Bowl-bound Eagles.
In reflecting on that scintillating rookie run, Purdy recited how he strayed from coaching points during games and that is something he wants to change.
“There’s times where you want to make some plays and things like that, and you start to get out of what they’re coaching,” Purdy said. “I feel like playing within what they’re coaching and just playing consistent ball as an NFL quarterback, I think that’s something that I can work on.
“And I’ve watched the film with Kyle and Griese and all of them and they all say the same thing, so those are just some things I took away from last year and what I have to work on.”
Griese did a phenomenal job last season, transitioning from the ESPN booth and into his first full-time coaching gig as the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach. Shanahan previously trusted that job to Rich Scangarello and Shane Day, not to mention the oversight by former coordinators Mike LaFleur and Mike McDaniel.
Beyond the coaches’ tutorials is peer support, which an injured Lance provided to the upstart Purdy last season.
“I tried to just be an ear for him. Just to listen to whatever he’s seeing and whatever he’s processing, how he’s seeing things and just educate as much as I could and help,” Lance said. “And obviously, I haven’t played a ton of ball. He’s played more games than me now, but for me, it was just like being a friend, honestly, through the ups and downs of plays and drives and things like that.
“I just wanted to be there for him, whatever he needed.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com