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While much has already been said and written about who the San Francisco 49ers should start under center in 2023, does the team’s locker room have a dog in the race? According to Mike Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area, the answer is yes, as they detailed on their 49ers Talk podcast.
“I think there will be a lot of pissed off people in this locker room if Brock Purdy is not the starter next season,” Maiocco recalled.
Lee Chan said Purdy has the locker room’s “complete respect.”
“They all stand behind him, and I think he has won them over by not only his play, but how he carries himself, how he acts off the field.”
Would the 49ers locker room ultimately accept it if Lance either won the team’s quarterback competition or an injury forced him to play over Purdy and whomever else Lynch opts to sign this offseason? That’s pretty safe to assume, what with how well players accepted Jimmy Garoppolo and “Mr. Irrelevant” when they took over at quarterback in 2022.
Fred Warner Backed Purdy After 49ers Playoff Loss
After the Niners’ loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Eastern Conference Finals, Purdy was down not because he tore his UCL but because he was worried that he let the older players, like Fred Warner, George Kittle, and Arik Armstead, down for not being able to play up to his full ability.
Warner, to his credit, immediately shut that line of questioning down, as he told reporters after the game.
“He ain’t got nothing to be sad about,” Warner told reporters via NBC Sports Bay Area. “He’s the reason we even got to this game.”
“He’s the reason we’re here right now and like I said, unfortunate what happened, him getting hurt and [backup quarterback] Josh [Johnson] getting hurt, we just couldn’t do enough to find a way to win.”
Regardless of which way the 49ers opt to go under center heading into 2023, it’s clear the team has cultivated a supportive nucleus that will make sure whichever quarterback gets the nod is supported in the fall and beyond.
John Lynch Believes Having a Good QB Is a Competitive Advantage
Asked in his end-of-year exit interview if the Niners explicitly tried to build a team around a rookie-scale contract quarterback in order to maximize the roster around him, Lynch asserted that while that is a factor, finding a high-end signal caller who can start long-term really is the goal.
“So, I don’t believe that’s the reason why you do that,” Lynch said via 49ers WebZone. “The bottom line is you better have a quarterback you really believe in because it’s such an important position. There happen to be two young guys that we really like, so I think that would lead us to that more than anything. The fact of the matter is yes though and that’s why teams have a window when they have a quarterback on a rookie deal.
“If you look at our roster, we’ve got high-end players all over, a lot of high-end players that we’ve taken care of, but we’re able to do that and we’re still in decent cap position. In part because even with Jimmy on the roster this year, he’s not making one of those gigantic deals right now. We did our one-year thing, so yeah, I think it is something we can take advantage of if we choose to go that direction.”
Regardless of who the 49ers start in 2023, both of their quarterbacks will count less than $10 million against the cap, which will be a big help in retaining players like Emmanuel Moseley, Mike McGlinchey, and Jimmie Ward.
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