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On Thursday, just four days before Game 1 of the 2024 season, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan dropped a pretty major update on the team’s depth chart. The backup quarterback job, tightly contested throughout the preseason between last year’s No. 3, Brandon Allen, and newcomer Josh Dobbs, would go to Allen, though Dobbs is remaining on the 53-man roster as the No. 3 option.
“Yeah, I told Brandon Allen,” Shanahan said, via the team’s website. “Brandon will be the two. Josh will be the three right now.”
Having Allen as No. 2 is not a huge surprise after having gone through camp and the preseason. Still, it is a big surprise when compared to the time that Dobbs was signed by the 49ers in March. At that point, it was presumed Dobbs was being brought in to replace Sam Darnold, who signed with the Vikings and will start for Minnesota. Allen was No. 3 behind Darnold last year.
Shanahan did say that Allen has the job, “right now,” which seems to imply he could yet change his mind as the season goes on.
49ers Gave Fair Shots to Brandon Allen, Josh Dobbs
Both Allen and Dobbs got long looks from the 49ers in the team’s three preseason games. Dobbs had more opportunities, and went 34-for-51 passing with 351 yards and a touchdown, with one interception. Allen was 19-for-30 passing and tallied 194 yards. He did not throw an interception or a touchdown.
Allen is 31 and is farther removed from having starting experience, though he has been kicking around the NFL since he was a sixth-round draft pick of the Jaguars in 2016. He bounced through practice squad assignments with the Jags and Rams until he was named the Broncos’ backup in 2019. He started three games for Denver that year.
Allen moved on to Cincinnati, and appeared in 12 games (six starts) for the Bengals over three seasons before signing with the 49ers last year.
Dobbs, meanwhile, is 29 and was a fourth-rounder of the Steelers in 2017. He kicked around Pittsburgh for three years, making six relief appearances, before landing with the Titans in 2022. Last year, he was the Cardinals’ starter for eight games while Kyler Murray was injured, and started four games before being benched by the Vikings.
Dobbs is 3-11 as a starter in his career. Allen is not much better, at 2-7.
Brock Purdy Staying Healthy Is the Priority
Ideally, of course, the 49ers’ backup quarterback decision will be inconsequential. They won’t have to play either Allen or Dobbs as long as star QB1 Brock Purdy stays healthy. Purdy suffered a nasty elbow injury in the 49ers’ playoff loss to end the 2022 season 20 months ago, but was healthy throughout last year, sitting out only the season finale for rest.
Dobbs said on the “Adam Schefter Podcast” after signing with the 49ers that one reason he wanted to be in San Francisco was to watch Purdy—who is only in his third season—work. Dobbs said he rejects the idea that Purdy is not al lthat talented, but is merely a “game manager” quarterback.
“I’ve respected seeing how he’s been able to quickly do that from the first year, getting thrown into the fire, because I know what that feels like,” Dobbs said. “And then being able to go to the NFC Championship Game, be one injury away from going to the Super Bowl, and then go to the Super Bowl the next year in the midst of, obviously, all the people trying to say he’s a game manager, yada, yada, yada.”
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