49ers player stock watch halfway through 2018 preseason
By Peter Panacy
The San Francisco 49ers just wrapped up their second of four 2018 preseason games, losing to the Houston Texans 16-13. Which players have seen their stock rise or fall over these first two games?
On a positive note, we’re halfway through the preseason and the San Francisco 49ers own a 1-1 exhibition record after two 2018 contests — the first, a 24-21 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, followed by a 16-13 road loss to the Houston Texans.
Scores and the win-loss record don’t mean much during these bouts. But individual units and players’ efforts certainly do. And like most teams around the league, the Niners have seen their fair share of risers and fallers.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo‘s stock, of course, will never fall. That’s impossible, right? Even if it was questionable after his 3-of-6 effort against Dallas, all he did was go 10-of-12 for 186 yards with one touchdown and an interception (not totally his fault) in Houston.
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OK, enough of the Jimmy G talk. He’s going to be fine when the regular season rolls around.
The quarterbacks behind him, however, aren’t quite in the same boat. Garoppolo’s primary backup, C.J. Beathard, didn’t look particularly great again after a lackluster performance against the Cowboys.
So let’s start there as we break down which players and units have seen their stock rise or fall over the first two weeks of the preseason, shall we?
Quarterback C.J. Beathard
Sure, Beathard was essentially thrown into the fire his rookie season, struggling with a 49ers offense that was both overly complex and with pieces not yet jelling.
Yet one would have hoped the former Iowa quarterback would have shown more maturation in year two. The problem, however, is it just hasn’t happened.
Beathard’s first game was marked by poor decision making and a number of batted-down throws. He had another one of those throws in Houston and finished the game with a relatively lackluster 10-of-17 mark for a mere 82 yards.
That wouldn’t be bad on its own, but Beathard still looked the part of making throws too late and not fully going through his receptions. And on more than one occasion, he completed passes far too short of the first-down marker on third downs.
While these stats won’t count, those kinds of efforts certainly won’t help his Football Outsiders’ ALEX metric (if he ever gets the chance to see the field in regular-season games).
Even worse, Beathard has been outplayed by San Francisco’s No. 3 quarterback, Nick Mullens, over two games. Granted, Beathard has been going up against second-string units and backups, whereas Mullens largely faced players not likely to be on an NFL roster this September.
But still, Beathard hasn’t looked good at all this preseason.