San Francisco 49ers rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard was a bright spot in Friday’s preseason opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. The 49ers won that game, 27-17, thanks to Beathard’s two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
As the backup backup quarterback, Beathard is already a fan favorite and the hype train around these parts is out of control. But to earn the coveted Niners Nation KSWOF — Kory Sheets Was Our Future — player of the game award, a player has to have a monster fourth quarter in the preseason. The award is in honor of the best and worst fanpost in Niners Nation history.
I advise you read up on that if you aren’t familiar. A couple months ago, Fooch also mentioned KSWOF in asking ya’ll who your pick would be for the honor following the NFL Draft. But back to Beathard.
In the fourth quarter, Beathard completed a 20-yard pass to Kendrick Bourne, and later in the drive completed a 46-yard touchdown pass, also to Bourne. After the Chiefs went on to fumble on the ensuing possession, Beathard threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Tyler McCloskey on the back of strong running from Raheem Mostert.
Beathard also had a seven-yard pass to Trent Taylor in that fourth quarter. Overall, he completed seven of 11 passes for 101 yards with a pair of touchdowns and no interceptions. He was sacked twice for a loss of 17 yards.
Ultimately, Beathard was playing against backups of backups like himself, and he has a long way to go. Matt Barkley was decent for part of the game as well, so Beathard hasn’t really shown anything to try and usurp him for the backup job. But he showed poise and a command of the offense, which is always important.
We’ll see if Beathard can keep it up, but for now, as far as I’m concerned ... C.J. BEATHARD WAS/IS OUR FUTURE!