When the 49ers signed Matt Barkley as a free agent in the offseason, many assumed he would be the 49ers’ back-up quarterback in 2017. This was still the case when new head coach Kyle Shanahan drafted C.J. Beathard out of Iowa in the third round, a surprise pick on a player that looked a project.
But Beathard turned some heads in OTAs and has continued to impress during training camp. Shanahan joined Murph & Mac on Thursday and said that the backup QB spot is now an open competition between the two young quarterbacks.
“We’ve been rotating with those guys,” Shanahan said. “You know Matt Barkley got the 2’s throughout OTAs, but C.J. did a good job with his 3 reps and when we had our time off, got away a little bit, and you come back and really just try to study the OTA practices and mini-camp we had. You start to evaluate those guys, we felt C.J. coming into training camp earned the right to compete for the No. 2 spot. That’s how we’ve been doing it so far and we’ve been rotating them throughout practice and those guys have been battling pretty hard.”
Shanahan also touched on the performance of starting quarterback Brian Hoyer, who Shanahan coached as an offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns in 2014.
“I think Brian’s been doing a good job,” Shanahan said. “I think he’s taking advantage of the opportunity or just the reps he’s been getting to where I think he’s improved a lot each week. You go back to OTAs — and I’ve worked with Brian before — so he had a grasp of some of the things we’re doing, just the terminology and stuff. You know we were only together eight months. So to come back here after being away for a few years…You know he knew the playbook, he was able to spit it out, but you could tell after going through that process and starting again in training camp, he’s really starting to own it. It’s not just about knowing it. I think he’s staring to feel it, go through the progressions real fast, play real sharp. He’s always thrown the ball well and I think he’s playing at a real high level right now.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Shanahan’s comments on Beathard, skip to the 5:50 mark.