Now that Brock Purdy is all but returning as the starter for the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, Mac Jones will return to QB2. A role he may be underpaid for.
The 49ers could
not have brought in a better backup to Purdy, and Jones is under contract through 2026. Obviously, the chatter on social media has begun on what the 49ers should do with Jones.
Let’s first discuss what won’t be happening. Starting Purdy on Sunday was not a hard decision, and there is no quarterback controversy in San Francisco. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said just as much, calling the decision “easy.” So that’s not an option now, and it won’t be in 2026 either. If you look at Purdy’s contract, it’s even more apparent that any suggestions that Jones would be QB1 is nonsense.
But there’s still a decision to be made. I mentioned that the 49ers may have a decision to make with Jones depending on his performance. The “worst-case” scenario is a comp pick when he walks in 2027. With Jones’ youth and cheap final year of his contract, he could be a nice piece for a team to build around now that he’s proven he can work outside of dysfunction.
But Purdy has only played a full season once (sorry, the game he was a healthy scratch on in 2023 doesn’t count—so he did play a full season), and the 49ers have called upon backups in 2024 and 2025. None of them produced the results that Jones has.
It begs the question: Should the 49ers trade their backup quarterback in the offseason? What’s the price they should take?
The reason to trade Jones is apparent. The 49ers’ number one issue in 2025 is their depth. This was obvious in the preseason when we saw a massive dropoff from the starters/second-string teams. I don’t need to go into how depth has hurt the 49ers in the regular season with all these injuries. Trading Jones would thin out their quarterback depth, but it could give them another pick to patch some of the many roster holes elsewhere. Plus, Jones is under contract for only one more year. It’s almost a given that if they let him walk in 2027, he’d have several teams calling him, and the 49ers would get a comp pick in 2028 (of which round we would never know).
The reason not to? We’ve seen other quarterbacks play when Purdy gets injured, and the result hasn’t been too hot. Anything from Christian McCaffrey in the NFC Championship game to whoever they could roll out in 2024 during that nightmare of a season, none have had the production that Mac Jones has. Do you dare risk having the understudy to Brock Purdy be a rookie or another unknown when you know what you’re getting with Jones? The issue with keeping Jones is just that: he has one more year, and given what we’ve seen, he most likely will go somewhere else to start when that year is up. The 49ers get a comp pick.
Yippie…
So you can keep him and take that now, or strike while the iron is hot and get yourself something a bit better. If I’m an NFL GM, I’d definitely be good with a second-round pick for Jones. Depending on draft position, a team might consider a first-round swap if the 49ers packaged Jones with a third. The New England Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo midseason to the 49ers for a second-rounder. The only difference is that Garoppolo was in the last year of his rookie deal.
A first-round pick most likely isn’t going to happen. A third-rounder is what would be more probable, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a second were what was finalized in the deal. Of course, all of this is moot if you think the 49ers can’t afford to let their backup quarterback walk. And with Purdy’s durability still unproven, keeping Jones might be the difference between surviving a few weeks and watching a season collapse. I mean, do we really want to think about what would be happening right now if Jones was not filling in for Purdy?
What do you think the 49ers should do with Mac Jones in 2026?
