The San Francisco 49ers quarterback depth chart is not a super inspiring group, but for the purposes of this rebuilding process, Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley are adequate bridge options. The team is looking for improved play and consistency on offense, but expectations are not exactly through the roof.
Yahoo! Shutdown Corner writer Zach Pereles put together a ranking of quarterback depth charts around the league recently. His system is inexact, as most are, as he attempted to weight the starter and primary backup to come up with something. He ranked out every starter, and then ranked out every backup. He gave the starter’s ranking 80 percent weight, and the backup got a 20 percent weight.
With this system, Pereles ranked the 49ers No. 29, ahead of the Los Angeles Rams, New York Jets, and Cleveland Browns. Here’s what he had to say about the 49ers quarterbacks:
Hoyer has quietly been a solid option for teams as either a highly productive backup or starter for teams in transitional situations, as he showed over the past three seasons in Cleveland, Houston and Chicago. In Kyle Shanahan’s first year, there are not high expectations of winning in Santa Clara, but progress for a young defense should be evident. Offensively, Hoyer doesn’t have a ton of options. That doesn’t bode well for him or his young backups, former golden boy Barkley and third-round pick Beathard. The 49ers opted against a quarterback in the first round and added picks, still got the guy they wanted (DE Solomon Thomas), and now have an offensive wizard able to handpick the next face of the franchise in 2018. Not all is looking bad for the 49ers, but this isn’t the year to put up big passing numbers for a team that hasn’t been the same since Jim Harbaugh’s falling out.
Pereles ranked Hoyer No. 27 among starters. The quarterbacks behind him included Blake Bortles, DeShaun Watson/Tom Savage, Josh McCown/Christian Hackenberg/Bryce Petty (combined together), Cody Kessler, and Jared Goff. While Goff did have a brutal rookie season, I’d still be a bit more inclined to drop the Jets trio behind him.
Pereles combined Matt Barkley and C.J. Beathard for a backup ranking of No. 25. The quarterbacks behind them included the Jets trio, Brett Hundley, Scott Tolzien, Patrick Mahomes and Tyler Bray, Sean Mannion, and Jake Rudock and Brad Kaaya.
When it comes to backups, rankings are never a simple process. Sports Illustrated ranked out backup quarterbacks, and Barkley and Beathard were 18th. They talked about the Chicago Bears three one-score losses when Barkley had to take over as starter. He is not a guy you want installed as a day one starter, but in an emergency, you can do plenty worse than Barkley.