If I had told you back in 2021 that, say, the Steelers would begin the 2025 season with Aaron Rodgers, DK Metcalf and Jalen Ramsey on the roster, you probably wouldn’t be able to dream up the scenarios that landed them all in Pittsburgh.
You might even be a little surprised to find out that Daniel Jones would be 2-0 as the Colts starter after (not surprisingly) being run out of New York. What would not shock you at all, not even a little bit, would be learning that the 49ers signed Mac Jones ahead of the 2025 season (though the part about Jones being Brock Purdy’s primary backup might cause some puzzled looks).
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but on March 26, 2021 (as the Zach Wilson pro day was taking place!), the 49ers traded up from No. 12 to No. 3 and the conventional wisdom was that if Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers were going to move up for a QB, it would be someone more in the mold of Kirk Cousins than Robert Griffin III (to keep the 2012 Washington draft theme going).
Remember, as CBS Sports’ John Breech wrote in September 2023, Shanahan wanted to bring Cousins to San Francisco in 2017, and offered the team’s No. 2 overall pick, but Washington wasn’t interested. Why did Shanahan like Cousins so much? He’s a great processor, routinely gets into the right plays, makes the right reads, and the ball goes where it’s supposed to. He’s not a high-end athlete, and doesn’t have a great arm, but in Shanahan’s system, that’s not a necessity.
And if you were to line up all the first-round quarterbacks from the 2021 class — Trevor Lawrence, Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Jones — only one of those names would be comped to Cousins. Of course, the 49ers zigged when we all thought they would zag, they took Lance at No. 3, and he started four games in two seasons before being traded to Dallas. He was a backup there for two seasons, and now serves as Justin Herbert’s backup in Los Angeles.
In the lead-up to the ’21 draft, the 49ers liked Lance’s athleticism and outside-the-pocket playmaking ability enough to back seat what Shanahan had traditionally looked for in his QBs. It didn’t work out, though in a world of Josh Allens, Lamar Jacksons, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, I get it. Thankfully, the 49ers took Brock Purdy with the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, and this summer, the team signed him to a five-year deal that averages $53 million annually.
Purdy, in case you’re just back from the moon, is closer to Cousins or Jones than Lance, as an NFL quarterback. And after Purdy suffered a toe injury and an injury to his non-throwing shoulder in the Week 1 win over the Seahawks that would sideline him for at least one game (and maybe up to a month), Jones would get his chance to shine in Shanahan’s system.
On Sunday, Jones looked more like Alabama Mac, the one that was the 15th-overall pick of the Patriots in the 2021, than the now-journeyman quarterback who, save a promising rookie season, has been plagued by some haphazard coaching and a lot of forgettable performances.
Prior to his Week 2 start on the road in New Orleans, Jones had a 20-29 record with the Patriots and Jaguars. He completed 66% of his throws with 54 touchdowns, 44 interceptions and lost nine fumbles. Against the Saints, Jones was a tidy 26 of 39 for 279 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions (though he did lose a fumble early in the third quarter). He did it without George Kittle, and Kyle Juszczyk left in the first half with a concussion.
In the short term, Jones looked a lot like every other successful “Shanahan QB” that preceded him for all the reasons I outlined above. Even with an average run game in New Orleans, in Week 2, the 49ers offense ranked sixth in plays per drive and average starting field position, scored every time they got into the red zone, and converted 53% of their third downs (that was good for third).
Jones got off to a rocky start — the offense went three-and-out and he missed on his first four pass attempts — but he settled down by the second drive and we saw very little of the frenetic pocket presence and poor decision-making that almost felt like his calling card during his final days in New England. Instead, we were all treated to third-down dots-for-six to Christian McCaffrey just before halftime:
Then, early in the fourth quarter — and yet another third down — Jones layers this second-level throw to Jauan Jennings for another score:
Jones became a punchline in recent years, with folks forgetting that he was a first-round pick who began his NFL career by winning five straight road games! And before that, he helped Alabama win a national title. How good was he in college? During the pre-draft process, both Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith — who played with Jones and Tua Tagovailoa at Alabama — said they preferred Jones at quarterback.
When Jones is playing with confidence, he can get red hot, and we saw glimpses of that on Sunday. Now the question becomes if he can hold down the fort in Purdy’s absence. Shanahan hinted after the game that “there’s a chance” Purdy plays in Week 3 against the Cardinals, but added “we got to see how the toe goes. It’s very up to debate. So we’re just taking it a day at a time.”
In the meantime, no one in that building seems worried about rolling with Jones.
After a sluggish first series, Jones hit Ricky Pearsall on third-and-long to move the sticks and that prompted this pep talk from left tackle Trent Williams.
“Trent just came up to me and was just like, ‘Go hoop, dude. Just go make plays,'” Jones said after the game, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I was like, ‘Alright, if Trent Williams says that to me, I’ve got to go do it.’ So that kind of just got me calmed down a little bit.”
Second-year offensive right guard, Dominick Puni had more praise for his quarterback:
“I was thinking about that before this game, ‘I’m glad we have Mac Jones,'” Puni said. “(Purdy) is an amazing quarterback. If you’re going to have a backup, Mac Jones is hell of an option.”
Every spring, I spend a lot of time stressing “fit matters” when talking about the quarterback draft class. Does Bo Nix have the success he had as a rookie if he’s not playing for Sean Payton? What about Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury? Hell, if the list is long enough, we could even include Jones and Josh McDaniel. Alternatively, would Lawrence be further along in his development if he didn’t have the Urban Meyer experience in Year 1? And look how Kevin O’Connell helped salvage Sam Darnold’s career — the Vikings went 14-3 last season! With Darnold under center! He parlayed his ’24 performance into a three-year, $100 million deal from the Seahawks.
Look, who knows what the future holds for Jones, or if he’ll ever get another chance to be a full-time starter in the league. For now, he reminded us all that he can play at a high level. Is it sustainable? With Shanahan working as puppet master, it sure feels like it, whether it’s for a week, a month or longer.
“Kyle obviously has a great game plan every week and he has a plan and it’s our job to execute it,” Jones said. “And there’s going to be a lot to clean up, but you never take these for granted in the NFL.”
Fit matters. Just ask Brock Purdy.
