An old football adage, often attributed to the legendary John Madden, pretty much goes: If you say you’ve got more than one starting quarterback, you really haven’t got any.
Kyle Shanahan doesn’t seem to agree with this idea. The San Francisco 49ers head coach said Thursday that he’s sticking with the trio Brock Purdy, Trey Lance And Sam Darnold are all able to lead a team:
“I think we have three talented quarterbacks that are all capable of being franchise quarterbacks,” Shanahan said at the Dwight Clark Legacy Series event. according to The Athletic’s David Lombardi. “Brock did it in his eighth year [games]. And we have two other guys in our squad that we really believe can do the same.”
But only one can be the 49ers’ Week One starter this season, and all signs point to Purdy being that player.
Shanahan and 49ers general manager John Lynch effectively named Purdy a 2023 starter this spring and admitted they received swap calls for Lance. Shanahan said Purdy was “the starting player.” [the season]Earlier this offseason, Lynch added that Purdy “earned the right to be the guy” after leading the 49ers to the NFC Championship game with a record 7-1 last season. San Francisco gave Darnold free rein after serving as an off-and-on starter for the Carolina Panthers for two years after a tumultuous three-year stint with the New York Jets.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan could have a new Week 1 starter in 2023. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
The case for Lance and Darnold
Shanahan refused to categorically rule out Lance or Darnold as the team’s starters. He claimed Lance, who was out for a season after the 49ers ranked him No. 3 overall in 2021, “would have gotten to a level where he would have done similar things” to Purdy in 2022 if Lance hadn’t taken the Would have broken finger in 2021 and broke his ankle in 2022.
“We were expecting Trey Lance [to be the man for a long time] and I think he still can be. “You also don’t expect the last draft pick to come in and play at this level,” Shanahan said. “He missed that opportunity and Brock came in and did it. I really think Trey can do that, but Brock has already done it and that’s a very good thing for us.”
As for Darnold, Shanahan said he still sees him as a talented former No. 3 pick of the 2018 draft. Oddly enough, Darnold is the most experienced quarterback in the group with 55 career starts.
“You watch your entire career and there’s no reason to think otherwise,” Shanahan said. “He hasn’t had the best situations, so we’re happy to have him here.”
Why would Shanahan say all that? Maybe this offseason he wants some real quarterback competition between three players under the age of 26. The 49ers have not had one in Shanahan’s tenure as head coach after San Francisco traded for it Jimmy Garoppolo in 2017 and named Lance a Week 1 starter in 2022.
Or maybe Shanahan said what he said in case Purdy doesn’t fully recover from UCL surgery by Week 1. While Shanahan said he believes Purdy will be ready by training camp, it’s impossible to know for sure until he puts on pads and starts practicing.
Another thought is that Shanahan is simply trying to boost Lance’s commercial value ahead of the 2023 season and lure a team into making an offer for him.
Either way, the 49ers will make one of the most important decisions of the year this offseason. Not only is San Francisco the favorite to win the NFC West (-175, per BetMGM), the 49ers also have the second best odds (+300) of winning the NFC and tied on points with the third best odds of winning the Super Bowl (+900).
A lot depends on who Shanahan names as the starting quarterback, and he’s not fully showing his cards just yet.