49ers QB FAQs and answers on Purdy, Lance, Garoppolo and more (2024)

This is usually the time of summer when Kyle Shanahan starts to settle things — or test some things — in his quarterback depth chart.

Three weeks into camp. One preseason game done. Three-and-a-half weeks and two more preseason games before the Week 1 opener in Pittsburgh. It’s when the QB cards need to get sorted out.

Last year, in the days leading up to the 49ers’ second exhibition game, Shanahan decided to flip unheralded rookie Brock Purdy ahead of presumed backup Nate Sudfeld, which, in retrospect, might’ve been the most important decision of 2022. Also, as Trey Lance wobbled through camp as the 49ers’ announced QB1, that’s about when Shanahan seriously started to consider the possibility of bringing Jimmy Garoppolo back into the fold as Lance’s backup.

Fateful decisions. Big ones. So they’re three weeks into camp now. The second exhibition game (at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday against Denver) is coming up. Three-and-a-half weeks before the first game. With some familiar and some new issues brewing on the 49ers’ QB front this summer, this seems like a good time to try to add context and maybe even answer the most frequently asked (and argued) questions.

Starting with the easiest one.

So Purdy is the unquestioned starter, right?

Yes, let me say and write it a thousand times (probably literally already have), yes. The only question about Purdy was the pace of his recovery from his March elbow surgery, and he’s already made it through 11 practices getting every first-team rep without any noticeable limitations. He’s the starter. Shanahan and John Lynch have been clear about that for months — given what he did at the end of last season, Purdy is the starter if he’s healthy. And he’s healthy.

Frankly, if Purdy wasn’t the slam-dunk QB1, I think Shanahan and Lynch would have to answer some serious questions from their locker room. He is. They don’t.

Is Sam Darnold now in position to beat out Lance for QB2? Is this what Shanahan and John Lynch planned all along when they signed Darnold in the offseason?

Shanahan and Lynch set this up just to let the competition play out. Nothing’s been rigged, IMO. If the pressure produced something special out of Lance, all the better for the 49ers. But I agree that Shanahan and Lynch probably had a strong feeling that Darnold would be the safer QB2 choice and would prove it in camp. And so far, Darnold is proving it, especially after Darnold’s smooth outing followed Lance’s shaky, hesitant starting performance Sunday in Las Vegas.

One step further: If Darnold keeps it up in the practices this week and through Saturday’s game, this competition might be close to a wrap. He’ll likely be the guy that Shanahan trusts to step in if there’s a mid-game emergency or a key, five-game stretch without Purdy.

Could Darnold (or, if he has a late-camp surge, Lance) compete with Purdy for QB1 through the season?

No, I don’t think that’s a major possibility, at least not in the first half of the season. No job is permanent, of course. If Purdy plays poorly or is obviously not the same physically as he was last season, there could always be a change. But it would have to be serious.

Shanahan seems more emotionally committed to Purdy than he ever was to Garoppolo over the years, and I don’t think Shanahan came close to pulling Garoppolo even through some occasionally spotty play. Purdy’s the guy, and he connects with Shanahan’s play-calling style better than anybody the 49ers have had in this era.

So what happens to Lance if he’s QB3? Could he be in competition with Brandon Allen for, gulp, QB4?

Sure, it’s possible that Lance could theoretically be competing with Allen over the last few weeks of camp for a roster spot, presuming the 49ers keep three QBs on the Week 1 roster (which I think is a safe presumption). But I don’t think the 49ers are going to release Lance. He’s young, he’s smart, he’s talented, he’s well-liked in the locker room, he’s still guaranteed $9 million more on his rookie contract (and would be a $10 million dead-cap hit this season if he’s cut), and he still has value. If it’s Allen or Lance for the last spot, I think Lance stays on the roster as QB3.

But could the 49ers try to avoid that choice by trading Lance, which would produce a dead-cap hit of $5.5 million but save $4 million in actual dollars? Yes, they probably already have checked around a little on this; if Lance indeed loses out on QB2, I imagine the checking will only intensify. Allen is a comfortable QB3 option. What could the 49ers get for Lance? In this scenario, I think they’d likely take a conditional fourth-round pick (based on 2023 playing time) in a blink. If I’m a QB-needy team without Super Bowl-or-bust pressures, I’d make that trade.

If Lance can’t even get a backup job with the 49ers and is a potential discard candidate, was that the worst trade and draft pick in recent NFL history?

Giving up three first-round picks to move up to draft Lance No. 3 overall and then watching Lance get beat out by two other QBs to start his third NFL season … well, that scenario would put this move way up there on the Debacle List.

But you can’t make current decisions by trying to justify past decisions. You make a move, you play it out, and if it didn’t work out, the worst thing you can do is refuse to admit the mistake. That only compounds it. I’ve always respected that quality of both Shanahan and Lynch. They’re secure enough to change their minds quickly and deftly when the facts demand it.

They went all-in on Lance, over Mac Jones, because they wanted an elite-talent QB and they wanted him on a cheaper rookie deal so they could pay the rest of their talented roster. They knew Lance would take some time to develop, but his injuries plus his inexperience just stalled everything beyond their ability to wait for it. Then Purdy arrived and outperformed anything Lance has ever done.

The quiet but simultaneous 49ers error was that they misjudged Lance’s athletic abilities and what Shanahan could do with them in this system. That was the presumed failsafe, right? That if Lance took extra time to figure out how to operate Shanahan’s system, he could at least make a handful of big plays every game with his legs and threaten defenses in multiple ways.

Over the previous two summers, Shanahan inserted some special plays to try to suit Lance but decided it wasn’t working and ditched the idea this year. I believe the conclusion was partly because the QB-in/QB-out concept messed up Shanahan and the offense’s rhythm and also partly because Lance just isn’t dynamic enough to make it worthwhile.

I can’t remember when Lance even looked like he might run through a defense. In the rare times he’s been both healthy and in the game, he’s actually looked pretty slow. Which is why Shanahan stopped running him outside last season and mostly ran him up the middle; it was simply the most reliable way to get yards. And that indirectly led to his broken ankle. It’s not Lance’s fault. But you can’t call dual-threat NFL plays for a QB who isn’t a dual-threat talent.

Won’t the 49ers suffer eventually after wasting all those picks on Lance?

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. They got Purdy essentially for free to play QB. That was lucky, but you get credit for getting lucky just like you get punished for being unlucky. Shanahan and Lynch are the ones who drafted Purdy and put him in position to win. If Purdy falters, that’s on them. If he plays great and leads a top offense, that’s to their credit.

I think Purdy will always be better than Lance probably in any system but especially this system. If Purdy plays like he did at the end of last season, is he worth three first-round picks? No, not that much, but with a $870,000 salary this season and $985,000 next season, with no possibility to get a new deal until after 2024, Purdy is worth a lot of draft picks. A lot of good ones.

Yes, the 49ers botched the evaluation on Lance and they absolutely will pay for not having those first-round picks. Micah Parsons was selected with one of them (yikes!), Cole Strange with another and Bryan Bresee the last one. First-round picks are very important. You don’t ever want to waste them. It’s usually how you get the best QBs, receivers, left tackles, pass rushers and cornerbacks.

However, you can survive burning some first-round picks if you are good at acquiring top talent in other ways.

Here’s a list of the players the 49ers have added recently without paying a first-round pick:

Trent Williams (acquired by trading multiple non-first-rounders)
Christian McCaffrey (same)
Deebo Samuel (second-round pick)
Fred Warner (third round)
George Kittle (fifth round)
Dre Greenlaw (fifth round)
Talanoa Hufanga (fifth round)
Purdy (seventh round)
Charvarius Ward (free-agent signee)
Javon Hargrave (free-agent signee)
Kyle Juszczyk (free-agent signee)

Also, Ward was originally undrafted and Hargrave was a third-round pick. And they both still ended up as incredibly valuable players.

I get it, the fixation is first-rounders. It’s very important to hit on those picks. The 49ers have been iffy there, but they also nailed the No. 2 pick in 2019 (Nick Bosa) and did fine with No. 25 in 2020 (Brandon Aiyuk). But the 49ers have young Pro Bowlers, aging Pro Bowlers, middle-career Pro Bowlers and probably some potential Pro Bowlers on this roster, and they’ve won a lot of games. The point isn’t to collect first-round picks, it’s to acquire the best players by whatever means you can. And then win.

Could Lance have succeeded with the 49ers if he hadn’t gotten hurt last year? Can he succeed elsewhere?

I think Lance still has every chance to turn into a solid NFL QB. But I don’t think it’ll be this year or maybe even in the year after that. And the 49ers have a roster that needs a good QB right now because they can win the Super Bowl in February. They can’t wait for somebody to develop into that guy. When and if it happens for Lance (and I hope it does), it’ll probably be with another team.

What was the deal with the 49ers and Philip Rivers last postseason? If Shanahan was ready to sign him once Purdy got hurt in the NFC Championship Game, why didn’t the 49ers sign Rivers before that game, so he could’ve played then?

My sense is that the 49ers only wanted to bring in somebody of Rivers’ stature if he’d be the starter. And as long as Purdy was healthy and playing at that level, Rivers wouldn’t have been the starter. It’s also likely that Rivers wouldn’t have wanted to come in just to stand on the sidelines as a backup, anyway.

But yes, as Shanahan alluded to on my podcast, the 49ers had conversations with Rivers during last season, probably starting with Garoppolo’s injury in early December. They believed Rivers was ready to go, and they believed he would be as prepared as possible to jump into action during the playoffs, if they needed him.

By the way, though Ben Roethlisberger said during the offseason that the 49ers contacted him, I’ve heard that it always was Rivers at the top of the emergency list and that Roethlisberger was not on it. Which makes sense, because if you know Shanahan you know that he would’ve wanted a QB he could trust to be prepared, mentally and physically, for a huge playoff run. Rivers probably will be that guy until he’s 50. I think Roethlisberger stopped being that guy two or three years before he actually retired.

The Rivers thing also had something to do with the deteriorating Garoppolo/Shanahan relationship at the end of last season, right?

I can say this with total certainty: If the 49ers had somehow made it past the Eagles without Purdy and Josh Johnson, they were not going to turn to Garoppolo in the Super Bowl. The 49ers had made that decision days or weeks before the NFC title game.

It’s likely that Garoppolo couldn’t have played, anyway. But Shanahan and Lynch were not playing Garoppolo again. In their minds, he was an ex-49er already. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Mike Silver reported that Garoppolo irritated Shanahan by skipping QB meetings at one point. I’ve heard that the 49ers believe Garoppolo had tuned them out almost totally during the playoffs. They didn’t want Garoppolo anymore. If it came to a crisis QB, they were happy to go with Rivers. The one thing led to the other.

We know the public evidence: Shanahan’s snappy end-of-season declaration that there was no scenario in which Garoppolo would be back and Garoppolo speeding out of the team parking lot on clean-out day. I’ve already written that the 49ers were initially hoping that Garoppolo could make it back as insurance for the playoffs, even holding a roster spot for him, and were vastly disappointed when he couldn’t. The communication between the two sides trying to figure out if Garoppolo could be ready, I’ve heard, was not good. Or non-existent.

And as always with Garoppolo and Shanahan, it’s also about what was unsaid, what was tolerated, what was accepted and what came out indirectly and slightly passive-aggressively over an eventful relationship. Garoppolo was hurt a lot over these five seasons. The 49ers usually lost when he was hurt. He also spent a lot of time watching Shanahan and Lynch try to replace him. Tension was natural.

Generally, Garoppolo and Shanahan aretwo very different people with two very different approaches to football. Shanahan’s favorite kind of QB personality is Type-AAAAA Kirk Cousins. Purdy isn’t as vocal as Cousins, but he’s similarly detail-oriented and structured. Well, that is not how Garoppolo does this. He’s a low-key guy, he’s an improviser and maybe not so much of a detail guy, and he’s all but unreachable when he’s not physically at team HQ. Not just a guy who won’t return calls or texts promptly. He won’t return them at all. Even from his coach or his GM. It’s just who he is. Sometimes that’s charming and sometimes it’s not.

An example of this and how it might grate on both guys: Last summer, while he was still under contract with the 49ers but theoretically on his way out, Garoppolo wanted to continue his shoulder rehab in Los Angeles, but Shanahan — likely leery of completely losing touch with Garoppolo as usual — insisted that Garoppolo finish it up at 49ers HQ at the start of training camp. That created the weird spectacle of Garoppolo on a side field while his teammates conducted a full training camp nearby. But Garoppolo couldn’t find a team to trade for him, and he and Shanahan made do and were happy about it when Garoppolo returned as the backup and then started winning games after Lance’s injury in September.

It should always be emphasized that it mostly worked with these two, if somewhat accidentally. Remember, Shanahan initially planned for Cousins to be his QB but adjusted when Bill Belichick tossed Garoppolo into his lap for a second-round pick during the 2017 season. Later, just a year after Shanahan decided to turn down Tom Brady and stick with Garoppolo, the 49ers traded three first-round picks to get Garoppolo’s replacement. Then they kept Garoppolo for two years after that, and the 49ers got to the NFC Championship Game in both seasons.

Eventually, the whole thing finally exhausted both men. They were more than tired of each other. They were done with each other. It’s not surprising that there were no Shanahan/Garoppolo hugs and chats at Raiders’ HQ or Allegiant Stadium last week. It was never buddy-buddy. It got testy at the end. There were annoyances in the middle, too. But I think they got the best out of each other for those five years, I really do.

The TK Show:Go to Tim Kawakami’s podcast page onApple,SpotifyandThe Athleticapp.

(Photo: Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images)