Niners Nation
If there’s anything San Francisco 49ers fans know better than anyone else, it’s a quarterback controversy. We have the more memorable ones like when Joe Montana and Steve Young duked it out, and ones we’d rather soon forget like Brock Purdy and Sam Darnold (was more blown out of proportion than anything).
So Mac Jones has won three games as a backup to Brock Purdy and looked good doing it. Are we on the verge of yet another quarterback war?
“No, I still think it’s absolutely Brock Purdy’s job,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter said, with little hesitation when presented with the question on the Pat McAfee show. “I don’t even think it’s a question.”
The 49ers signed Purdy to a $265 million extension during the 2025 offseason. A quarterback controversy that same year would be something on the level of Brock Osweiler madness and yet another chapter in the 49ers’ bad luck with these decisions, following the Trey Lance trade.
It’s still a fair question: Did the 49ers give Purdy all that money and then find Mac Jones can do the same things for a fraction of the cost? The Athletic’s Matt Barrows thinks it’s a bit more nuanced than that.
“The reason why Mac Jones came to the 49ers,” Barrows said on KNBR. “And the reason why the 49ers wanted Mac Jones is because he has a lot of similarities to Purdy. They are very much similar quarterbacks.”
The one difference is mobility. Purdy has been able to make plays with his legs, either taking things down the field or rolling out and extending the play. Jones has had a scramble or two in his three starts, but not to the level or speed of Purdy’s. Jones quite simply doesn’t have Purdy’s elusiveness.
And that elusiveness is what separates the two.
What the 49ers have is a wonderful situation, both for 2025 and the 2026 offseason. They can have Jones hold down the fort until Purdy is 100 percent healthy. Jones has demonstrated that. Not many teams can lose their starting quarterback for an extended period and have the backup play at a high level.
That also makes for an interesting 2026 offseason. Jones has won all three of his starts this year, and he is on a two-year contract. The 49ers currently have him on the books for 2026, but the more he wins, the more he becomes an enticing trade piece to the league that is underpaying him. His base salary for 2026 is $1.4 million, and he’s 27 years old. Now that he has demonstrated he can run an offense when appropriately coached, his affordable final year and age bring an interesting decision in the offseason.
That is, if the 49ers are willing to let their quarterback room take a huge hit. At the end of the day, that’s a decision that will come more abruptly the more Jones wins. Right now, the 49ers are in a terrific situation.
And right now, there’s no controversy — just...
