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Will Tanner Mordecai Make the 49ers' 53-Man Roster?

Keep an eye on Mordecai this offseason.

Grant Cohn

May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Tanner Mordecai (4) runs drills during the 49ers rookie minicamp at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Mandatory Credit: Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
May 10, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Tanner Mordecai (4) runs drills during the 49ers rookie minicamp at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. Mandatory Credit: Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports / Robert Kupbens-USA TODAY Sports
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The 49ers don't have many intriguing options behind Brock Purdy this season.

Last season, they entered training camp with Sam Darnold and Trey Lance -- two former first-round picks. This season, the 49ers enter training camp with Joshua Dobbs and Brandon Allen -- two stiffs. If either one of those players has to start for more than a week or two, the 49ers are in major trouble.

That's why rookie undrafted free agent Tanner Mordecai is so intriguing.

The last time the 49ers added a young quarterback to their team, it was Brock Purdy with the final pick in 2022 draft. So he almost was an undrafted free agent. This year, it seems the 49ers have taken the template that led them to Purdy and used it to bring another young quarterback who is similar.

Like Purdy, Mordecai played a ton of college football and is mobile enough to escape pressure and extend plays. So he's not a project. If he has the talent to make it in the NFL, he should be able to show that right away just as Purdy showed it when he was a rookie in camp. That year, Purdy beat out veteran Nate Sudfeld for a roster even though the 49ers had given Sudfeld guaranteed money which they had to eat when they released him.

Mordecai didn't throw any passes during team drills in OTAs or minicamp, but he will in training camp. And he probably will play in the preseason, too. And if he plays well, the 49ers will have no choice but to keep him on their roster and cut one of their underwhelming veteran backups.

Keep an eye on Mordecai this offseason.

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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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