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Brandon Allen Seems to be Winning the 49ers' Backup QB Competition

I'm guessing both backups will make the team but Allen will be the first quarterback off the bench if Brock Purdy gets injured.

Grant Cohn

Tennessee Titans cornerback Elijah Molden (24) pressures San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brandon Allen (17) during their first preseason game of the 2024-25 season at Nissan Stadium Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024.
Tennessee Titans cornerback Elijah Molden (24) pressures San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brandon Allen (17) during their first preseason game of the 2024-25 season at Nissan Stadium Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. / Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK
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After one preseason game, Brandon Allen seems to have a slight lead over Joshua Dobbs in the most boring backup quarterback competition of all time.

Allen got to play the entire first half of the 49ers' preseason loss to the Titans and Dobbs got to play the entire second half. I'm guessing next week against the Saints, Dobbs will start and Allen will play in the second half. Fair is fair.

So this competition is far from over. But for now, Allen clearly is the leader, as he should be. He knows the system -- he was on the team last year. Dobbs is new, an outsider. And while he's extremely smart, even the smartest players take about a season to master Kyle Shanahan's offense.

Against the Titans, Allen completed 7 of 13 pass attempts for 98 yards. His passer rating was 78.4. He was not special. But he also threw two accurate deep passes -- one to Tay Martin, the other to Ronnie Bell -- both of which were dropped. So he played better than his numbers indicate.

Dobbs completed 14 of 20 passes for 148 yards and 1 touchdown. He also ran once for a six-yard touchdown. So he made some plays, too. But he committed a turnover and threw another pass that nearly was intercepted. Plus he took a 15-yard sack because he ran backward away from pressure. So he made more negative plays than Allen.

I'm guessing both backups will make the team but Allen will be the first quarterback off the bench if Brock Purdy gets injured.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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