The San Francisco 49ers quarterback depth chart has been fairly settled most of the offseason, but that won’t prevent some rotation at the backup position. Training camp opened with Brian Hoyer, Matt Barkley, C.J. Beathard, and Nick Mullens filling out the depth chart in that order. However, KNBR’s Kevin Jones reported that Beathard got in some second team reps during Monday’s practice.
After practice, head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked what traits he likes from Beathard thus far, and if there is enough time now and in the preseason to project to next year. Beathard was drafted with development in mind, and as third string quarterback, he likely would see mostly scout team work during the coming regular season. Here’s what Shanahan had to say.
“Just watching C.J. you can tell without even talking to him, watching him on tape the way he processes things. He’ll play in that pocket with a lot of people around him and he can get through progression. He’s a very quick thinker. He’ll react and let it rip. He prepares very hard. He is very intelligent. There’s a knack that certain people have in the pocket where they don’t sit there and just freeze paralysis by analysis. That’s one thing we saw in C.J. in college and the more he gets comfortable with the offense and stuff, he’s shown it already, but the more reps and stuff he gets, that’s one of his huge strengths.”
The 49ers first preseason game is a week from Friday. For the backup QB position, I am more curious to see how the depth chart splits through the first two games. If Barkley is taking the second team reps in both games, it would suggest he is secure in the backup job. At the same time, if the team is comfortable with Barkley as the No. 2, maybe they work Beathard in with the 2s to get him some more advanced work than he would get in second half mop-up duty.
Beathard will likely get plenty of work with the 3s, but how much work do you see him getting in the preseason a little further up the depth chart?