After signing a five-year, $265 million contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers back in May, Brock Purdy obviously hasn't had the 2025 campaign he was hoping for, as the 25-year-old has appeared in just two of the Niners' nine games thus far.
After leading San Francisco to a wild comeback victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1, Purdy sat out the next two games with a case of turf toe. He returned in Week 4 against the Jacksonville Jaguars, completing 22 of 38 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, but aggravated the injury in the 26-21 loss and hasn't taken the field since.
In Purdy's absence, of course, Mac Jones, whom the 49ers signed to a two-year, $8.41 million deal in the early days of free agency, has filled in admirably, going 5-2 in his seven starts to help San Francisco to one of the best records in the NFC through the first half of the season.
While Purdy is expected to resume his role as the Niners' QB1 when he's genuinely healthy enough to return, ESPN's Dan Orlovsky isn't convinced, as he believes Kyle Shanahan has a full-blown quarterback controversy on his hands.
"There is a brewing quarterback controversy, competition, whatever you want in San Francisco," Orlovsky said during a recent episode of Get Up.
"Brock Purdy is a really good player. Mac Jones has been absolutely sensational in his time. Doing it with people that have been beat up. Stars and perimeter players that haven’t been healthy. He’s been knocked around. Yet this team is somehow, even with all those injuries, is still in the playoff race, and it’s because of the quarterback play. There's a quarterback controversy brewing in San Francisco."
Now, a lot of what Orlovsky says here is accurate, as Jones has been beat up a bit, taking 16 sacks in his seven appearances, and has done well with a fairly limited receiving corps at times. But while the former first-round pick has played solid football, saying he's been "sensational" is a bit of a stretch.
Sure, in last Sunday' 34-24 win over the New York Giants, Jones played his best game of the season, completing 79.2 percent of his passes for 235 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions, thus earning an impressive 135.2 passer rating.
In the three games before that, however, a stretch in which San Francisco went 1-2, the 27-year-old wasn't nearly as accurate, even falling below 60 percent in the loss to the Texans, failed to hit the 200-yard mark in two of those contests, and threw just two touchdowns against four interceptions, which equates to a 75.6 passer rating. Not quite "sensational" play, is it?
Look, as stated above, Jones has been solid, ultimately completing 67.2 percent of his throws for 1,832 yards with 10 touchdowns against five interceptions, thus earning a 93.6 passer rating in his seven starts.
But when Purdy is ready to go, he'll be the starter, as he should be. And Jones knows this, already saying this season that he knows he's Brock's backup and that he's simply trying to win as many games as he can while he's taking the snaps. The 49ers are obviously very fortunate to have such a serviceable backup at their disposal. And if Purdy goes down again, Jones will step back right back in and attempt to get San Francisco more wins.
But once Brock comes back, there's no controversy here.