While San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is a believer in the talents and upside of quarterback Brock Purdy, he continues to make it clear he has a pair of pretty good replacements just waiting to step in if the second-year QB falters.
The San Francisco 49ers entered the 2023 offseason as one of the best teams in the NFL. They reached the NFC Championship game for the third time in four years last season and were probably a healthy QB away from their second trip to the Super Bowl since 2019.
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However, early in their championship clash with the Philadelphia Eagles, surprise stud QB Brock Purdy injured his elbow and the San Francisco 49ers’ Super Bowl hopes went right down the toilet soon after. Assuming Purdy can recover fully from the injury, it would seem like he is the team’s undisputed leader of the offense. However, Shanahan continues to leave the door open for his second and third-string signal-callers.
Trey Lance, the former first-round pick that was hand-picked to be the future of the offense still remains on the roster after a season-ending injury and the rise of Purdy cost him his starting spot. However, instead of having a pair of possible starters, the San Francisco 49ers surprisingly signed another former first-round pick in Sam Darnold.
San Francisco 49ers head coach is in love with his QB options
In recent weeks, the 49ers’ head coach has been continually complimentary of all three, and on Thursday he took that show of love to an all-new level during his appearance at the annual Dwight Clark Legacy Series event.
“I do believe we have three quarterbacks talent-wise who are all capable of being franchise-like quarterbacks. But that’s just capable … Brock’s done that in his eight. And we have two other guys on our roster who we strongly believe can do that also.”
– Kyle Shanahan [via David Lombardi]
Obviously, he makes it clear that Brock has shown that he deserves to be their starter heading into camp, but he could not help but state that they also have two other players that can fill that role.
Yet, he didn’t stop there in complimenting his options beyond Purdy. In regards to the former San Francisco 49ers starter, Shanahan said, “We did expect Trey Lance and I think that he still can be.” If the idea is for Purdy to be their next franchise QB, who does he expect Lance to be the man for?
Is Sam Darnold the biggest threat to Brock Purdy’s spot?
However, when it comes to former New York Jets and Carolina Panthers starter Sam Darnold, Shanahan almost gushed over the upside of the five-year veteran who is still only 25 years old.
“I truly see Sam talent-wise as a top pick in the draft, just like he was. You watch his whole career and there’s no reason to think differently. He hasn’t been in the best situations, so we’re glad to have him here. And I’m so glad he wanted to come here. He could’ve gone to a lot of different situations and probably made a lot more money.”
– Kyle Shanahan
The San Francisco 49ers head coach is one of the best in the league and his approach is likely to keep all of his QBs happy and confident despite the fact that only one of them seems like the clear choice as their starter.
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However, one has to wonder if Shanahan has some doubts about Purdy’s elbow or his long-term growth and believes he has the perfect situation where either Lance or Darnold could jump right in and make a major impact just like Purdy did for him after Jimmy Garaoppolo’s injury last season.