The 49ers face less controversy and more of a quarterback riddle as the 2021 league year begins. Below-center instability in the modern NFL is a potential death knell for front offices and coaching staff, making it nearly 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 must find out quickly if they want to compete for Super Bowls regularly. To better find that stability, they should take a page from the Philadelphia Eagles book on team building.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a good idea to follow the Eagles’ lead on anything, given the uproar the franchise has undergone since winning the Super Bowl in 2017. However, they were last outside the season in a similar position that the 49ers are in this position. year.
Quarterback Carson Wentz played MVP-caliber football in 2017 during his sophomore season in the NFL. He tore his ACL late that year, and wasn’t the same player in 2018 or 2019. While Wentz had a massive payday, the Eagles didn’t unnecessarily tie their car to the former No. 2 overall pick. Instead, they acknowledged his game had deteriorated and used a second-round roster over quarterback Jalen Hurts in the 2020 draft.
That’s the route San Francisco should take in this year’s draft, regardless of their feelings about Garoppolo. At best, he’s a starter capable of getting a team to a Super Bowl. In the worst case, it is not available. The latter scenario requires a more solid backup option than Nick Mullens or CJ Beathard.
Hurts ended up starting four games at the end of the year for the Eagles, showing enough promise that Philadelphia was willing to eat a $ 33.8 million dead cap hit to move Wentz for a pair of drafts. picks out of season. Chances are, we’ll see Philadelphia use another high pick for a quarterback this year to compete with Hurts and provide them with more than one beginner below center.
Given the importance of the quarterback position, it’s worth using the Day 1 or 2 picks once or twice every few years for signal callers until an elite talent emerges.
The old adage “if you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have any quarterbacks” might try to crop up, but the phrase doesn’t quite apply here. It works when a team has two quarterbacks that they can’t choose from because they are both bad. It does not fit in a team with several high-quality players on 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 missed 23 of the 49ers’ last 48 regular season games. Their backup situation this year essentially meant that Garoppolo’s second high ankle sprain ended their season. That might not have been the case if they had retained a highly drafted quarterback as his backup.
Plus, a second quarterback talented enough to win games in the NFL could later become an asset. Think how the 49ers took over Garoppolo. He was a second round pick with two NFL starts to his credit and was split for a second round. If Philadelphia drafts a quarterback in 2021 and he becomes the starter, Hurts will become a valuable trading token to the Eagles.
The 49ers have gone through four different starting quarterbacks since Shanahan took over as head coach four seasons ago. This off-season they get the chance to reset their quarterback room with Mullens and Beathard both looking for a free agency. They should do this with either a Day 1 or Day 2 choice they believe in. Then they will have to do it again in 2022 if they decide to part with Garoppolo before the draft.
This is the process they have to repeat until they have a player they think 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 is no cost too much for finding a long-term answer from the quarterback, and the Eagles showed last year why it’s important to have contingency plans on the list, even if they may already have a franchise caller. The 49ers have less certainty about their QB and less a financial obligation on the position. It may be unorthodox and counterintuitive, but San Francisco should start adding high caliber players below the middle until they find the long-term stability they haven’t had in recent years.