Fooch’s update: Jordan Schultz is now reporting that the team has in fact signed Tom Savage. There is no word yet on who they will release to make room for Savage. Head coach Kyle Shanahan has a 1 p.m. conference call, at which point I imagine we’ll get some clarification.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has said since Jimmy Garoppolo suffered his torn ACL that if the roster could accommodate it, he would like to add a third quarterback to the depth chart. Injuries have been a problem all season long, and so the 49ers have stuck with C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens as their two quarterbacks.
That may be changing, according to ESPN reporter Jordan Schultz. He is reporting the team is “very likely” to sign free agent quarterback Tom Savage.
#49ers are very likely signing QB Tom Savage, per league source. Savage, 28, played for the #Texans from 2014-17, before a brief stint with the #Saints. Savage already had a physical with SF, and will now have another one with the team, albeit a less extensive one. https://t.co/AB7Hd2BkP3
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) October 15, 2018
After Monday’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, Shanahan was asked about the report. The 49ers head coach said the the team was considering Savage and other options. They brought in a handful of options for workouts three weeks ago, but did not sign any of them.
The 49ers are looking for someone to compete with Mullens behind the team’s human crash test dummy of a starting quarterback. The first thing most anybody brings up is Beathard’s toughness, and virtually every game we see him make at least one or two scrambles where he converts a first down, but you really wish he would have slid instead of taking a brutal hit.
Beathard’s toughness is an admirable trait, but his style of play suggests it is all but certain he will get hurt at some point. He could very well avoid it, but with ten games remaining, I would be surprised if he took every single quarterback snap the rest of the way.
Which brings us to Mullens and Savage. Mullens is in his second year learning Kyle Shanahan’s system, so while he is not viewed as anything more than a backup at absolute best, there is some continuity there. Tom Savage spent the past four seasons with the Houston Texans after they spent a fourth round pick on him in the 2014 NFL Draft. He signed with the New Orleans Saints this offseason, but was released after the team traded for Teddy Bridgewater.
I’m not expert when it comes to quarterbacks, and I realize that any NFL, college, and probably high school quarterback is better at playing the position than me. I have never played organized football, so feel free to take that into context when I say, Tom Savage is a bad quarterback.
He is competing for effectively a throwaway role, competing for a backup role behind a quarterback in C.J. Beathard who will not be the starter next summer if all goes according to plan. It’s not a meaningless role given the odds of Beathard taking a bad hit, but it is likely meaningless in the bigger picture of the 49ers quarterback plans.
That being said, Tom Savage? Really?