SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Nothing is officially decided in the 49ers’ backup quarterback competition, but Joshua Dobbs is the candidate who is doing almost everything.
Dobbs got the first snaps after Brock Purdy in Sunday’s exhibition game against the New Orleans Saints, a week after Brandon Allen got the start in the preseason opener. And all Dobbs did was fire 21 passes in the second quarter with 12 completions for 133 yards, and take off on several breathtaking scrambles, ending up with 25 rushing yards and a touchdown in his very busy single quarter of play.
Dobbs did all this without looking flustered by the pass rush or inattentive to the proper passing progression. He just figured out how to do something good when not much good was happening at the start of the play, including his darting roll-out and pure juking of Saints’ safety Jordan Howden for a flying 1-yard TD in the final seconds of the first half.
It’s the Josh Dobbs show!
He somersaults into the endzone to put the @49ers ahead.
📺: #NOvsSF on FOX
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/nDeaupeQIl— NFL (@NFL) August 19, 2024
Was this exactly how Kyle Shanahan wants his QB to play at all times? Not so much. But Dobbs also didn’t make any grievous mistakes. And when he was good, it was electric. Yes, Shanahan allows (and sometimes even likes) when his QB just goes out and does stuff.
“He’s a baller, man,” Purdy said when asked about Dobbs’ performance. “He makes plays, goes through the reads and brings energy, man. He’s out there making plays and guys feed off of him. That’s football. Not always going to be pretty and you’re dropping back and everything’s going to be perfect. You’re going to have to make plays off-schedule and bring some juice to the team and guys feed off of that.”
Nothing is decided in this race because Shanahan says nothing is decided. And because Allen already has a year of experience with the 49ers and can be trusted to run the offense the way Shanahan likes it. So Allen likely will get the first shot at QB2 in the exhibition finale on Friday in Las Vegas.
But … well … did you watch Dobbs lead the 49ers’ offense (with mostly backups in at the time) on three scoring drives in the second quarter on the way to a 16-10 victory at Levi’s Stadium? Do you remember his twirling rushing TD last weekend in Nashville, Tenn.?
A lot is happening here. You don’t have to be bugging the 49ers’ coaching offices to understand that Dobbs is doing everything possible to become the first guy up if Purdy has to leave a game. Or if he’s out for several games.
“I think it’s a fine line when Dobbs can make a lot of plays with his legs, when you have a true running quarterback when you can put in all the running plays for them,” Shanahan said. “I wouldn’t necessarily put Josh in that category. But he is a guy that (a defense has to) honor him running those plays. If (a defense is) not honoring him in that way and you run those plays you can get a lot of good looks, just like he did last year in Arizona, things like that.
“That’s stuff that (last year’s 49ers QB2) Sam Darnold was capable of, too. You’ve gotta have the threat with your legs and stuff. You’ve gotta be willing to do it.”
Shanahan said that nothing should be read into Dobbs playing before Allen on Sunday — the 49ers always planned to rotate the two QBs in the preseason. Plus, this certainly doesn’t have to be a permanent decision. The 49ers could start the season with Allen as the active QB2 behind Purdy and Dobbs as the emergency QB3 then switch it up in later weeks. Or it could go vice-versa.
But Dobbs, who started 12 combined games with Arizona and Minnesota last season before signing with the 49ers last spring, has probably done enough to make sure that the 49ers will keep all three QBs on cut-down day rather than risk trying to sneak either guy through waivers.
And, very importantly, it wasn’t just about his runs on Sunday.
Earlier on that last drive, Dobbs anticipated the route beautifully and found rookie Jacob Cowing open deep down the right sideline for a 38-yard gain deep into Saints territory. Right out of the Shanahan playbook.
That all came after the offense completely stalled out in three series with Purdy, who was out there against most of the Saints’ first-team defense and was without Brandon Aiyuk, Trent Williams, Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Jauan Jennings, Jordan Mason and Aaron Banks.
Three starting offensive linemen (Colton McKivitz, Jaylon Moore and Jake Brendel) started the game with Purdy and stayed in for Dobbs, but Dobbs had backups-to-the-backups at receiver, running back and tight end.
“Did a good job, led us on a few scoring drives,” Shanahan said. “Made a couple plays when nothing was there. Thought it was similar to last week.”
And if you know the way Shanahan evaluates players, especially QBs, that last sentence might be the most important one he used to describe Dobbs, who is repeating his success. Just like somebody Shanahan might count on, eventually, to be Purdy’s backup.
• Purposeful, efficient use of mobility to extend plays and create openings when the defense has taken away everything else? That was the idea when the 49ers traded all those draft picks to move up and select Trey Lance in 2021, of course. And it never happened with Lance, at least not during his 49ers’ tenure.
But importantly, that was the minimum Shanahan wanted out of Lance. He turned the team over to Lance in 2022, hoping that Lance’s athleticism would get him through the bumpier times as he gained experience, learned the offense and (the 49ers hoped) took the offense to another level. But Lance didn’t have as much athleticism as the 49ers envisioned. Then he got hurt before he could immerse himself in the scheme, Purdy emerged and suddenly Lance no longer had a future with this franchise.
Flash-forward a year and Dobbs, 29, is a much more polished, more athletic version of what the 49ers hoped they’d get from an early version of Lance. With some elements of what they liked about Nick Mullens a while back and what they loved about Darnold last year.
• For the second consecutive week — and first two times since he first started calling plays as an offensive coordinator 16 years ago — Shanahan handed off the play-calling duties to offensive assistant Klay Kubiak on Sunday.
I asked Shanahan on Sunday: Why are you doing this in this specific preseason when you’ve had a lot of talented offensive assistants through the years?
“I just like him more than the others,” Shanahan said with a smile. “No, that’s not it. Been thinking about doing it for a while. Can’t really explain why. I think certain years you want to (call the plays in preseason), especially when you’re getting a feel for a quarterback and want them to get used to you. I think our quarterback, I’ve been with for two years, so Brock’s used to me. … Didn’t feel like I needed to this year. Klay’s been great at it.”
• Shanahan always treats the week of the second exhibition game as a threshold point in his regular-season preparations and now the 49ers are on the other side. They’re still very banged up and they still don’t have contractual solutions with Aiyuk and Williams. But the Sept. 9 opener is coming fast. This is when Shanahan starts to lock up the depth chart.
So the countdown clock is ticking for rookies Ricky Pearsall (out with a shoulder injury) and Isaac Guerendo (out almost all camp with a hamstring injury but Shanahan said he might return to practice soon). And things are looking up for Cowing, who missed time with a hamstring injury but came back to practice last week, looked good and caught four passes for 51 yards on Sunday and returned two punts for 19 total yards.
And the urgency on the 49ers to get Aiyuk and Williams signed and practicing? They’re proven performers, so there’s a little more wiggle room there. But if neither is signed by the time the 49ers get back from Las Vegas on Friday night, the pressure might get close to unbearable.
(Photo: Kyle Terada / USA Today)
