Notorious Brock Purdy hater already seizing on big game from Mac Jones

Backup San Francisco 49ers quarterback Mac Jones had to fill in for Brock Purdy in Week 2. He had a solid game and, predictably, Purdy haters have come out of the woodwork to use Jones’ performance as a reason to bash Purdy.

Nick Wright of Fox Sports 1 has been a notorious Purdy basher over the years. He has always felt that Purdy is nothing more than a product of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive system and the offensive weapons around him. Wright has never been shy to take aim at Purdy, so it is not surprising he is using a solid performance by Jones to further try to undermine San Francisco’s franchise quarterback. 

This is what Wright had to say:

"It's almost as if there's a lot of quarterbacks, that as long as they have starting-caliber at any point in them, you drop them into Kyle Shanahan's system... they can look really good. It's another reason why I maybe would have waited to pay Brock Purdy."

One of Wright’s co-hosts, Chris Broussard, came to Purdy’s defense:

"This is one game. Brock Purdy did it for three seasons. Is Mac Jones going to be top-five in MVP voting? Is Mac Jones going to lead them to the Super Bowl? I’ll give you a list of names who couldn’t do it. C.J. Beathard, Brian Hoyer, Nick Mullens, and Trey Lance, who you thought was all that."

It’s a fair point from Broussard. There have been a number of quarterbacks who struggled for the Niners over the years with Shanahan. The only two quarterbacks who have had sustained success under Shanahan are Purdy and Jimmy Garoppolo. Some of us are old enough to remember Beathard and Mullens having solid games here and there, but they never established themselves as a starter because they did not have the skill that Purdy brought to the table.

It is also important to remember that Jones had his solid game against the New Orleans Saints. It would be a borderline miracle if New Orleans won five games this season, so it's not like Jones went in and took down some juggernaut defense. He played well, but context matters.

Yet, nothing fuels the NFL content machine quite like the proverbial "quarterback controversy." There is no narrative that ESPN and FOX Sports talking heads like to fuel more than pitting two quarterbacks against one another. San Francisco has had legitimate quarterback controversies over the decades, but a Purdy-Jones controversy does not qualify as legitimate.

That is not going to stop Wright from doing anything he can to diminish what Purdy has accomplished in his young career. If Jones starts this Sunday and has another good game against the Arizona Cardinals, expect the haters to only get louder.

But if Jones lays an egg and the 49ers lose, something tells me Wright and other Purdy detractors are not going to admit they were wrong.