The San Francisco 49ers will go into Sunday's game against the New Orleans Saints with Mac Jones as their quarterback as Brock Purdy deals with a turf toe injury. This could feed a narrative that Purdy haters would love to pour gasoline on.
A recent discussion on KNBR focused on the very topic of the national narrative that Purdy is just a system quarterback who does not deserve the hefty contract extension he earned. We have heard this narrative for years and it could potentially be promulgated more if Jones plays well while Purdy is out.
Purdy could be out as many as five weeks with his injury so there is the potential that we could see a lot of Mac Jones going forward. There is a chance that Jones could play quite well considering he has had success in the NFL before. However, his last few seasons have been much less impressive.
Last season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he threw for 1,672 yards and eight touchdown passes with eight interceptions. Of course, that was with a less talented Jaguars team, so the hope is that the superior talent on offense for San Francisco can really help Jones out.
The offense will look a little different for San Francisco with Jones behind center. Expect the team to take more deep shots and throw outside the numbers a bit more than usual. Head coach and offensive playcaller Kyle Shanahan will surely have a good gameplan in place to take advantage of what Jones does well and what he is comfortable with doing, but Jones still has to execute.
If he does play well for however long Purdy is out, you can already imagine the Nick Wrights and Stephen A. Smiths of the world coming out and saying that Purdy is nothing more than a system quarterback and that you could stick any quarterback in Shanahan's offense and the team would be fine.
We know that is not true and there are many examples of that but that is still a pervasive narrative surrounding Purdy that will probably not go away until he wins a Super Bowl. Nevermind the fact that he led the 49ers to victory last week by throwing a touchdown pass to third string tight end Jake Tonges after having to scramble around and make something happen outside of the system.
Purdy could not care less what the narrative is as he just wants the team to win games. That is what makes him a good quarterback and selfless leader, but those who look to trash Purdy any way they can must be hoping that Jones goes off while Purdy is out.