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The 49ers Almost Certainly will Sign a Quarterback this Offseason

Impending free agent quarterbacks: Carson Wentz, Daniel Jones, Mac Jones, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.

Grant Cohn

Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on the field before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
Dec 12, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan on the field before the game against the Los Angeles Rams at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images / Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images
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This offseason, expect the 49ers to sign at least one quarterback, maybe even two.

That's because Brandon Allen and Joshua Dobbs both will be free agents. And neither one needs to return. Brock Purdy needs a better backup, someone who can push him like Sam Darnold pushed him in 2023.

That year, Purdy was coming off a torn UCL and the 49ers wanted to make sure they had the most talented quarterback room possible. So they added Darnold to a quarterback room that already had Purdy and Trey Lance. Which means the 49ers had two former no. 3 picks competing to be the backup. Darnold of course won the competition, and now is having an outstanding season as the Minnesota Vikings starting quarterback.

The 49ers could trade Purdy and sign Darnold, or they could keep Purdy and try to find the next Darnold. Meaning a former first-round pick with starting experience who was unfairly labeled a bust in his 20s.

Impending free agent quarterbacks who fit that description: Carson Wentz, Daniel Jones, Mac Jones, Justin Fields, Zach Wilson, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota.

Expect the 49ers to sign at least one of those players. Because they'll be cheap, and they have the talent to potentially flourish on the 49ers. Unlike Brandon Allen and Joshua Dobbs, who are third-string quarterbacks. Guys who shouldn't be active on game days.

Who knows, maybe Daniel Jones would be a winning quarterback if he got to play with George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings?

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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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