49ers Trade Rumors: Jimmy Garoppolo's Backup C.J. Beathard Drawing Interest

C.J. Beathard saw time as the San Francisco 49ers starting quarterback during the 2018 season while Jimmy Garoppolo recovered from a torn ACL. Teams around the NFL apparently took notice.

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the Niners "have gotten inquiries" regarding Beathard ahead of Tuesday's 4 p.m. ET trade deadline.

Beathard, 25, has not fared particularly well in his 13 NFL games between the 2017-18 seasons, holding a 1-9 record as a starter. For his career, he's thrown for 2,682 yards, 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, completing just 57.3 percent of his passes. He's also been sacked 37 times. 

Those 49ers teams weren't particularly good. But with franchise quarterback Garoppolo back in the fold, the team has gone 6-0 and, barring injury, he won't be relinquishing his starting job anytime soon.

It isn't the presence of Garoppolo that makes Beathard expendable, however. While Beathard struggled in the starting gig the past two years, Nick Mullens was far more competent in the role, going 3-5 in 2018. He threw for 2,277 yards, 13 touchdowns and 10 interceptions last season, completing 64.2 percent of his passes. He was sacked 17 times.

Riley McAtee of The Ringer ranked Mullens as the top backup quarterback in football in September, writing:

"Mullens’s ANY/A of 6.7 was 15th-best in the league among the 33 passers who registered at least 200 attempts. That may not be replicable over a larger sample size or in an offense that isn’t built by Kyle Shanahan, but it was an incredibly promising level of production for the then-rookie. To put that number into perspective, Andrew Luck registered a 5.7 ANY/A in his rookie season."

That made him the obvious backup for Garoppolo this season, making Beathard expendable and pushing him into third-string territory. But given Beathard's past struggles, it's also hard to imagine the Niners would get much in return for the third-stringer. 

Teams around the NFL might be looking to add Beathard on the cheap. Beyond that, it's hard to imagine he'll move the needle much for squads in need of quarterback depth.