Earlier this offseason, it seemed imminent the San Francisco 49ers could get a hefty return if they opted to trade backup quarterback Mac Jones, the No. 2 signal-caller who helped the Niners go 5-3 while Brock Purdy was out with a turf-toe injury, resurrecting an otherwise floundering career in the process.
But that trade market has gone cold, thanks to a flooding of veteran quarterbacks taking over as (likely) interim options for teams needing help under center.
Coupled with reports San Francisco was asking for an exorbitant return for a Jones trade, it's no surprise to see QB2 still rostered well over a week after the start of the league new year. And this jives with what both head coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch have said about retaining Jones. It certainly doesn't seem as if the 49ers have a sense of urgency to send him elsewhere in return for much-needed capital in the NFL Draft.
And that might be OK in the long run.
49ers can play the compensatory pick game with Mac Jones
Teams unquestionably paid attention to how Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold resurrected his career after a one-year stint with the Niners in 2023, blossoming with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 before helping the Hawks win a Super Bowl the following season.
Jones, a free agent in 2027, could be on a similar trajectory. And his eight-start efforts last year indicated as much.
While there's not much of a trade market now, there could be later this summer, especially if teams aren't satisfied with how their quarterbacking situations are developing or deal with some sort of devastating injury under center. In that case, Jones' market could heat up awfully quick.
But San Francisco can also aim to simply wait and let Jones' contract expire, which would almost certainly result in him signing a qualifying free-agent deal elsewhere in 2027 that would net a compensatory pick in the following year's draft. While it's a complex formula used to determine comp picks, and the 49ers could negate it by spending hefty cash on an external free agent at the same time Jones departs, at least Lynch and Shanahan have to keep that in mind.
They've done it a lot before. Case in point, the Niners will have three comp picks in this year's draft for a net loss of qualifying free agents an offseason ago.
That could be the long game for Jones, should San Francisco go that route.