Predicting Which 4 Quarterbacks the San Francisco 49ers Will Head into Camp with
The only constant about the 49ers’ quarterback situation the past few years has been the inconsistency.
San Francisco’s search for an elite signal caller has now spanned four head coaches, eight offensive coordinators and two presidents.
49ers’ fans who were graduating high school when Jeff Garcia departed, are now on their second mortgage.
Babies have been born, learned to walk, then enrolled in kindergarten since San Francisco had a consistent QB.
Suffice to say a franchise that once lucked into having back-to-back-to-back Pro Bowl quarterbacks has certainly paid their penance to the football gods.
New San Francisco head coach, and alleged QB whisperer, Jim Harbaugh will have his hands full attempting to resurrect the 49ers’ most important position and he may have to do it with a shortened or non-existent training camp.
Assuming the NFL players and owners do get their act together, here’s my look at the four QBs Harbaugh will head to training camp with.
Alex Smith
1 of 4
All indications are Alex Smith will be back in the red and gold next season and will be the starter.
Of course, you could have written that same sentence the last four summers, only to see Smith replaced by the likes of J.T. O’Sullivan, Shaun Hill and Troy Smith.
Much has been made of Harbaugh’s public reconciliation with Alex Smith and his decision to hand over a playbook during the brief break in the lockout.
Harbaugh may have sixth sense when it comes to quarterbacks, but presumably one of them is sight and there is no way he watched Smith’s recent performance and didn’t see the same struggles that every 49ers' fan has witnessed.
Maybe Harbaugh believes he can help Smith overcome his deficiencies and finally reach his true potential.
More likely, he realizes Smith is his only real option at QB right now, so why not try and rebuild the shattered confidence of the former No. 1 overall pick with some flattering prose in the press.
Even if Smith is the starter Week 1, there is no assurance he’ll hold that same spot on the depth chart in Week 16, so Harbaugh better have some other options.
Colin Kaepernick
2 of 4
The great new hope for 49ers' fans, barring a bizarre Crabtree-like holdout, Kaepernick is a lock to be on the roster when training camp begins.
The second-round selection will face a steep learning curve moving from the Pistol to the West Coast offense and is more likely to see the field as an option out of the Wildcat than as a starter.
If Harbaugh is smart, he will place Kaepernick firmly down the depth chart to ensure the raw rookie isn’t forced into the fire to early.
To that end, a shortened—or cancelled—preseason might actually be a good thing for Kaepernick because one good fourth quarter performance against a bunch of back-ups will prompt a cacaphony of cries for Kaepernick to start now.
Kaepernick is the future and hopefully the long-term answer to the questions that arise every training camp about quarterback, but for now he’s a rookie third stringer.
David Carr
3 of 4
Ironically, the only quarterback the 49ers have signed is the first one they should cut.
It took about 30 seconds into Carr’s relief performance against Carolina last year for it to become apparent he was no longer an NFL quarterback.
Even Singletary, who once believed that Shaun Hill had an NFL arm, quickly realized that Carr couldn't make the throws needed to run a successful offense.
It’s an interesting twist because Carr was the reigning “No. 1 overall pick who was thrown in a bad situation so you feel bad for him” guy until Smith took over that title, but having failed at four stops, now the only common variable in Carr’s failures is himself.
Because San Francisco needs live bodies at QB, and free agency will likely start simultaneously with training camp, Carr will be on the team when camp begins, but if there is anyone else available he shouldn’t be a 49er when camp ends.
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Josh Johnson
4 of 4
I tried to put “Veteran Free Agent X” into the Bleacher Report picture finder and returned zero results, which got me thinking…
The prevailing prediction seems to be the 49ers will go with Alex Smith as their starter and bring in a cheap, veteran, option as a back-up. Someone in the mold of Marc Bulger or Billy Volek.
My prediction is it will take about two weeks—or one call to the laundry list of former 49ers coaches who Smith got fired—for Harbaugh to realize he needs another viable option.
Enter Josh Johnson, who knows Harbaugh’s offense from their time together at University of San Diego and showed flashes in limited playing time with Tampa Bay before being supplanted by Josh Freeman.
Given that Freeman is the starter for the foreseeable future, a package of later round picks seems like it would be enough to pry him from the Bucs, especially if the Oakland native goes public with his desire to return home and reunite with his college coach.
Furthermore, Johnson has a skillset similar to Kaepernick, which would be useful for Harbaugh and coordinator Greg Roman as they try and build an offense to maximize Kaepernick’s ability.
Worst case scenario, Johnson is better than Carr and a solid back-up to Smith.
Better case scenario, he beats out Smith in training camp and becomes an effective starter for a few seasons while Kaepernick develops.
Best case scenario he has a Michael Vick like performance, allowing San Francisco to deal Kaepernick to some other QB starved team, while they laugh at the memories of what it was like to have a question mark at quarterback every season.
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