Niners Nation
We’ve been keeping tabs on everything involving the San Francisco 49ers this season. Heading into Wild Card weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles, let’s go position-by-position through the Niners’ roster to detail how the depth chart stands, in an attempt to tell the story of the team that will take the field on Sunday.
We’ll try to be as accurate as possible, but understand injuries and questions at certain positions make the starter/player difficult to predict.
Despite what some of the bigger talking heads wanted to believe, this was Brock Purdy’s team when he’s healthy. Purdy battled a toe injury that kept him out for a chunk of games. Once he shook off the injury and began to scramble, we saw the quarterback Kyle Shanahan believed was worthy of carrying the franchise.
If the 49ers are going to win in the postseason, it’ll be because their quarterback rises to the challenge and makes the players around him better.
Kyle Shanahan saw more of Mac Jones this season than he wanted, but without Jones, the 49ers aren’t playing this weekend. Jones played like a starter this season, winning five games and throwing for over 300 yards in three of those games, and had at least two passing touchdowns in five games.
The NFL implemented a third quarterback rule stating that if both of the team’s top two quarterbacks are injured, a healthy-scratched quarterback on the 53-man roster may enter the game, provided the team accepts that neither of the top two quarterbacks can return to action. It’s the Brock Purdy rule, after Purdy suffered a UCL injury during the 2022 NFC Championship game.
Adrian Martinez almost played in Week 5. Earlier in the week, Shanahan said he isn’t considering having three quarterbacks active after a one-off situation:
“No. I mean, that would take us down somewhere else and with that rule that you don’t get an extra player, I don’t know anyone else who can ever choose that really, unless you’re playing with someone who’s really injured and you don’t think they’ll make it through the game. But I mean, to play with one less player throughout the game because of something that, for me has happened once in 23 years and other people I’ve worked with once in 45 years, just probably wouldn’t be the best odds.”
After 84 carries during his rookie season, Guerendo has zero this season. He was the kickoff returner until Week 5, but has been inactive since the team felt Jordan James could give them more on special teams.
Robinson never had double-digit carries this season, but still had quite the impact. He averaged nearly 30 yards per kickoff return and always seemed to give the Niners offense quality carries when he had enough quantity. He’s a bruiser, and that could help in the playoffs.
Every touch...
