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Can Brandon Allen Beat Out Joshua Dobbs as the 49ers No. 2 Quarterback?

The 49ers really like Brandon Allen.

Grant Cohn

Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brandon Allen (17) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2023; Glendale, Arizona, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brandon Allen (17) against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers really like Brandon Allen.

He took Trey Lance's spot on the 53-man roster last year even though the 49ers had traded three first-round picks for Lance. Then the 49ers let Sam Darnold leave in free agency this year and re-signed Allen instead.

A week after the 49ers re-signed Allen, they signed quarterback Joshua Dobbs. Most analysts assume he will be the 49ers' no. 2 quarterback this year because started 12 games last season while Allen has started just 9 games in his entire career even though he's 31 and will turn 32 in September.

But both Dobbs and Allen are scheduled to earn roughly $2 million from the 49ers this year. So the 49ers aren't invested heavily in either of them. Neither one has a financial advantage over the other. But Allen does have one advantage over Dobbs -- knowledge of Kyle Shanahan's system.

Dobbs is extremely smart, but Allen has been in Kyle Shanahan's system for more than a year. Plus he used to play for the Cincinnati Bengals who run a version of Shanahan's system. So Allen has an advanced knowledge of the terminology and concepts.

Dobbs does not. He's a quick learner but he's a novice in the 49ers system. So if he struggles at all in training camp or preseason and Allen plays well, the 49ers could elevate the older backup who has more experience in the system.

The 49ers clearly didn't want to hand the no. 2 quarterback job to Allen -- that would have been foolish. But if he beats out Dobbs in training camp and earns the no. 2 job, no one will question the 49ers.

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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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