The 49ers are in a somewhat unfamiliar place under center heading into training camp. They know exactly who their starting quarterback is going to be and there’s not going to be any competition for that starting job.
QB Brock Purdy is going to start and then there are three QBs behind him that are surefire backups. There’s neither a Trey Lance nor a Jimmy Garoppolo. There’s not even a Sam Darnold. Purdy in 2023 acquitted himself well in his first full season as a starter. He was one of the NFL’s most efficient passers, set a franchise record for passing yards in a single season, and finished fourth in MVP voting.
San Francisco believes it found its franchise QB, but still a few question marks need to be answered at the position during camp.
1. How much better is Purdy?
One of the overlooked aspects of Purdy’s stellar 2023 campaign is that he didn’t get a full offseason to work out and improve as a quarterback. Because of offseason surgery on his throwing elbow he spent the entire offseason rehabbing just to be back for training camp. This offseason he’ll have gotten a chance to work on his game, allowing some runway for a significant leap from the third-year signal caller. Game production will obviously matter above all else, but training camp will give us some insight into if/how he got better over the offseason.
2. Who’s the backup?
This one is still important even though the 49ers got a fully healthy season from Purdy last year. San Francisco has dealt with too many season-derailing injuries at QB to just overlook the QB2 spot on their roster. Joshua Dobbs, who signed with the 49ers in free agency, and Brandon Allen will presumably duke it out for that spot. Dobbs got starts in the league last year with mixed results, while Allen spent virtually all of last season as a healthy scratch and emergency third QB. His familiarity with the offense may give him an edge over Dobbs early in camp, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if the newcomer eventually won that job.
3. Is the next Brock Purdy on the roster?
The 49ers didn’t use a draft pick on a QB this year, but they did sign undrafted free agent Tanner Mordecai out of Wisconsin. Mordecai spent six years in college with three years at Oklahoma, two at SMU and one at Wisconsin. In those six seasons he threw 1,281 passes and completed 66.4 percent of them with 85 touchdowns and 27 interceptions. The overwhelming odds say Mordecai will get minimal reps in camp, some preseason time and then make his way to the practice squad. However, the odds said that about Purdy when he was the final pick in the 2022 draft and he wound up beating out veteran Nate Sudfeld for a roster spot. Because of that we have to at least leave the possibility on the table that Mordecai beats out one of Dobbs or Allen. His early camp reps, no matter how minimal, should give us a good idea of his chances to push for a roster spot.
