San Francisco 49ers: Quarterback battle breakdown, 2017 edition
By Dan Salem
The quarterback battle on the San Francisco 49ers is going to be one of the most fascinating… mostly because no one is deserving of winning the job.
NFL OTAs have wrapped up. Training camps start later this summer. We are officially out of the offseason and into the preseason. With that, it is time to speculate wildly on everything from depth charts to position battles to standings to signings.
Related Story: Houston Texans Quarterback Battle Breakdown
We debated quarterback battles in Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, and Houston, as well as Cincinnati‘s running back battle. Now we turn to the San Francisco 49ers, who have one of the most fascinating quarterback competitions… mostly because no one is deserving of winning the job.
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, discuss the San Francisco 49ers in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
San Francisco 49ers QB Contenders
Brian Hoyer
Matt Barkley
C.J. Beathard
Details
Todd Salem: Normally, in these position battles, we can safely rule out one contender. For the San Francisco 49ers, this feels legitimately like a three-man race. Brian Hoyer is far and away the most experienced passer at the NFL level. We also have the most evidence that he is not a starting-caliber player in this league. He’s on his sixth franchise in seven seasons. His best year was probably last year, though he only played in six games.
Matt Barkley has a much shorter career game log, though he is already on his fourth team in the past four years. Barkley grabbed the bulk of his career experience last year for Chicago after Hoyer got hurt. He was kind of good for about a month, and then was kind of bad, as evidenced by his insanely high interception rate.
Beathard has none of the bad experiences of Hoyer and Barkley because he has no experience at all. San Francisco drafted him in the third round of the 2017 draft.
Dan Salem: It’s ironic that both Hoyer and Barkley changed teams together, leaving the Chicago Bears for San Francisco. Not that it was their plan to do so. But they must know the strengths and weaknesses of one another quite well after playing together last season. Since San Francisco is rather obviously at the bottom of the league with little to no playoff aspirations, it will be interesting to see how each player approaches the year.
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Hoyer is playing for his next job, unless he wants to be the backup in San Francisco for the long haul. I assume he’d rather backup elsewhere with a shot at a ring. But his chances of being a starter for a team with hope are slim. Beathard is a rookie, so his goals are pretty straightforward. Barkley, on the other hand, can actually prove he deserves the 49ers job for the long haul. He’s young enough to be worth an investment, assuming his game is deserving of a contract.
Selection
Todd Salem: Barring injury, Hoyer is going to start Week 1. He is experienced, has had swathes of solid play, and can help lead a young squad. He also has played for Kyle Shanahan before when both were with Cleveland. I don’t see any logical reason why the 49ers would give Hoyer a ton of starts this year though. He is already 31 years old and injury-prone. He is not a part of the team’s future.
I don’t see Beathard having a future either. He was never an accurate passer in college and rarely threw the ball down the field. The latter is partially due to the Iowa offense, but accuracy normally translates one level to the next.
By process of elimination, I’m giving the 49ers job to Barkley. Last year, he was looking down the field with his throws and completed at least 60 percent of them in each game. At 26 years old, he still has time to develop with the next iteration of the 49ers — though the team will probably be on the lookout for a long-term solution next offseason anyway.
Dan Salem: There are two schools of thought in terms of the 49ers this season. The first is that like most teams in the NFL, San Francisco wants to try and win as many games as possible. The second is that the 49ers should tank the season and will do everything possible to lose each and every week. This ensures the team another top three pick and hopefully the number one overall selection in the 2018 NFL Draft. Have you heard? Next year’s draft is supposed to be full of quality quarterbacks.
For San Francisco to successfully tank, they must be worse than the tanking New York Jets and rebuilding Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. They must choose their starting quarterback carefully. While I like the feel good story of Matt Barkley finally finding his place in the league and earning a starting job, I don’t see it.
Next: NFL 2017: Ranking the top 30 pass-catching tight ends
Brian Hoyer will play quarterback for San Francisco all season, or until he gets hurt. He does just enough to look competent, but never enough to win anything outright. He’s an ideal stopgap, like he was for the Bears last year. Can he help San Francisco be bad enough to finish worse than the Jets or Bears? It’s a tall order, but I think he’s up to the task.