The 49ers are facing less a controversy and more a conundrum at quarterback with the 2021 league year getting set to begin. Instability under center in the modern NFL is a potential death knell for front offices and coaching staffs, and it makes it all but impossible to win a Super Bowl. Instability has defined the quarterback position for the 49ers since head coach Kyle Shanahan took over in 2017, and the team has to figure it out soon if they want to contend for Super Bowls on a regular basis. To better find that stability, they should take a page from the Philadelphia Eagles book of team building.
At first glance, following the Eagles’ lead on anything doesn’t sound like a great idea given the tumult that franchise has undergone since winning the Super Bowl in 2017. However, they found themselves last offseason in a similar position the 49ers are in this year.
Quarterback Carson Wentz was playing MVP-caliber football in 2017 during his second season in the NFL. He tore his ACL late in that year, and wasn’t the same player in 2018 or 2019. While Wentz had a massive payday coming, the Eagles didn’t unnecessarily hitch their wagon to the former No. 2 overall pick. Instead, they recognized his play had deteriorated and used a second-round selection on quarterback Jalen Hurts in the 2020 draft.
That’s the route San Francisco needs to take in this year’s draft regardless of their feelings on Garoppolo. At best he’s a starter capable of getting a team to a Super Bowl. At worst he’s unavailable. The latter scenario requires a more solid backup option than either Nick Mullens or CJ Beathard.
Hurts wound up starting four games at the end of the year for the Eagles and showed enough promise that Philadelphia was willing to eat a $33.8 million dead cap hit to move Wentz for a pair of draft picks this offseason. Chances are we’ll see Philadelphia use another high pick on a quarterback this year to compete with Hurts and provide them with more than one starting-caliber player under center.
Given the importance of the quarterback position, it’s worth using Day 1 or 2 picks on signal callers once or twice every few years until an elite talent emerges.
The old adage “if you have two quarterbacks you have no quarterbacks” may try and rear its head, but the phrase doesn’t quite apply here. It works if a team has two quarterbacks they can’t choose between because they’re both bad. It doesn’t fit for a team with multiple high-quality players at the position.
Having two quarterbacks who can start and help a team win is a significant advantage given the frequency of injuries in the NFL. Garoppolo specifically has missed 23 of the 49ers’ last 48 regular season games. Their backup situation this year essentially meant Garoppolo’s second high ankle sprain ended their season. That may not have been the case had they been holding onto a highly-drafted quarterback as his backup.
Additionally, a second quarterback who’s talented enough to win games in the NFL could become an asset down the line. Consider how the 49ers acquired Garoppolo. He was a second-round pick with two NFL starts under his belt and was dealt for a second-round pick. If Philadelphia drafts a quarterback in 2021 and he becomes the starter, Hurts becomes a valuable trade chip for the Eagles.
The 49ers have cycled through four different starting quarterbacks since Shanahan took over as the head coach four seasons ago. They’re getting a chance this offseason to reset their quarterback room with Mullens and Beathard both set to hit free agency. They need to do so with either a Day 1 or Day 2 pick they believe in. Then they need to do it again in 2022 if they decide to part ways with Garoppolo before the draft.
This is the process they should repeat until they have a player they believe can help them compete for Super Bowls on a regular basis, and even then it’s worth having a higher quality backup than a player with Mullens’ ceiling.
There’s no cost too high for finding a long-term answer at quarterback, and the Eagles showed last year why it’s important to have contingency plans on the roster even if they might already have a franchise signal-caller in place. The 49ers have less certainty about their QB and less of a financial commitment at the position. It may be unorthodox and counterintuitive, but San Francisco should start the process of adding high-caliber players under center until they find the long-term stability they’ve lacked over the last several years.
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