The San Francisco 49ers got some good news this week with rookie quarterback Kurtis Rourke having his practice window opened. The rookie, who was taken in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft, has been sidelined all season as he recovers from a collegiate ACL injury, but he is going to get to practice soon.
How he performs in practice is going to be very important for the Niners as they decide what to do with backup quarterback Mac Jones this offseason.
Jones has been coming up in trade talks basically all season after he filled in so well for Brock Purdy with San Francisco’s primary signal-called missing a number of games due to a toe injury.
Jones stepped in and played very well, keeping San Francisco alive in the playoff hunt. In total, Jones has thrown for 2,151 yards this season with 13 touchdowns compared to six interceptions. He is a big reason why the Niners currently sit at 9-4 with a very good chance to make it into the playoffs.
However, with San Francisco committed to Purdy for the long term, it has always seemed that Jones was stuck on the 49ers. The Niners were wise to sign him to a two-year deal prior to this season to try and provide a little bit of stability behind Purdy on the depth chart after cycling through backups the last few seasons. But now, the 49ers may not be able to refuse a trade offer for Jones if it is good enough.
Yet, the Niners may not be willing to trade Jones away unless they are confident they would still be going into next season with a competent backup.
Purdy has proven to have injury issues at times in his young career, and this season has shown the value of having a solid backup signal-caller, so there may be a solid case to be made that San Francisco should keep Jones.
At the same time, the 49ers also want to build their team up through the draft, so if they were able to get a second-round pick for Jones, that pick could be spent on a solid defensive lineman or perhaps a wide receiver to replace Brandon Aiyuk.
It will not be an easy decision, but it could be made easier if Rourke looks solid in practice.
We know head coach Kyle Shanahan realized in practice during the 2022 season that Purdy was the best quarterback on the roster, even though he was a third-stringer at the time. Perhaps Shanahan will be able to tell right away in practice if Rourke has what it takes to be a solid NFL quarterback.
Rourke had a very solid final season in college at the University of Indiana. In 12 games, he threw for 3,042 yards with 29 touchdown passes and five interceptions.
He actually played six seasons of collegiate football, thanks to the pandemic, so he has a lot of reps under his belt, similar to how Purdy got a lot of reps playing at Iowa State for four years. Plus, Purdy was also a seventh-round pick, so the comparisons between the two have already begun.
However, we have seen that comparing unheralded quarterbacks to Purdy does not always turn out great, so perhaps the brakes should be pumped a bit before Rourke is declared the next Purdy.
Rourke seems unlikely to see any in-game action this season, barring a calamity, but if he can prove in practice that he has what it takes to do the job in a serviceable fashion, then maybe the 49ers will be more comfortable trading Jones in the offseason.