49ers' Position Battles to Watch Ahead of 2023 NFL Season
Quarterback is all anyone wants to talk about regarding the San Francisco 49ers.
They will head to training camp with three signal-callers who have started an NFL game.
The assumption is the competition will be down to Trey Lance and Brock Purdy when both players are 100 percent healthy, but Sam Darnold is also there.
San Francisco needs to have a concrete answer at the position going into Week 1, and then it has to hope injuries do not derail its plans under center yet again.
Quarterback will receive most of the focus before the season opener September 10, but a few other positional battles are worth watching when training camp arrives.
Quarterback
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Lance and Purdy entered the offseason with two different injury-recovery plans.
Lance was the starter to begin the 2022 season, but a broken ankle sidelined him after Week 2. He has appeared in eight games in his two NFL seasons, so the 49ers do not know what they have in him.
Ideally, the team would have loved to give the starting job right back to Lance in 2023, but Purdy's performances at the back end of 2022 put him in contention.
Purdy is recovering from an elbow injury suffered in the NFC Championship Game. NFL Network's Ian Rapoport told The Pat McAfee Show that Purdy "should be around 100 percent" before the campaign kicks off.
A Lance-Purdy competition in preseason should help the 49ers decide for good which quarterback they are going with for 2023.
If injuries persist, like they have at the position in the last two years, Darnold will be a valuable reserve.
Kicker
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You would think the 49ers would not burn a third-round pick on a kicker to then not have him make the roster. So Jake Moody should be the front-runner to be the team's kicker in 2023 because of his draft status.
However, the 49ers still have Zane Gonzalez, and the veteran will provide competition.
Gonzalez could use San Francisco's training camp and preseason as a vehicle to showcase himself to other teams that run into kicking issues in August.
Gonzalez played 12 games with the Carolina Panthers in 2022. He made 90 percent of his field goals, which was a career high for him. He was also 22-of-23 on extra points.
The veteran kicker could carry that form into training camp and at least put some pressure on Moody during his first summer in the NFL.
While the 49ers' strategy seems straightforward at the position, it is a bit peculiar for a veteran kicker to still be on the roster when the team used a third-round pick on the spot.
If anything, we could see some unreal kicking numbers out of training camp if Gonzalez and Moody push each other.
Defensive End Opposite Nick Bosa
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The 49ers have three parts of their starting defensive line solidified going into training camp.
Nick Bosa will start on one edge, and the pair of Javon Hargrave and Arik Armstead will start at defensive tackle.
Second-year edge-rusher Drake Jackson is the presumed starter opposite Bosa, but he will face some competition from veteran pass-rushers.
Kerry Hyder, Austin Bryant and Clelin Ferrell are among those who could push Jackson, who had only had 14 tackles and three sacks in his debut NFL season, for the starting spot in training camp.
It is unrealistic to think Jackson will turn into Bosa in 2023, but he can develop into a more effective pass-rusher who will take some of the pressure off the defensive star.
The job appears to be Jackson's to lose, but keep an eye on Ferrell, who may have something to prove after his failed stint with the Las Vegas Raiders.
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