The San Francisco 49ers have a lot of explanation to do for the many curious and bad decisions they’ve made in the last few years with their quarterbacks.
After letting Jimmy Garoppolo walk, the team ended up trading away top-pick Trey Lance to the Cowboys while former “Mr. Irrelevant” Brock Purdy will now be their starting quarterback, and veteran Sam Darnold backs him up.
Another strange quirk in their QB situation is that, before he was traded, Lance reportedly fell to fourth on the depth chart, behind journeyman Brandon Allen. In fact, the Niners even went as far as to keep Allen on their 53-man roster.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about the decision to keep Allen on the roster Wednesday and he said they didn’t want to potentially lose him on waivers.
“We had pretty good knowledge that we think he would’ve got claimed,” Shanahan said. “If there was a third quarterback out there you could put on your practice squad you felt as good with, then it wouldn’t be an issue. But when he’s going to get claimed and how he feel about him, it was important to keep him.”
As Pro Football Talk notes, something doesn’t add up because Allen couldn’t have been subjected to waivers because he is a vested veteran with six years of accused service. The 49ers could have released him to make room on their roster and had no problem signing him to their practice squad. In theory, Allen could have signed elsewhere but the franchise could have worked out an arrangement with him beforehand as well.
Things can never be simple when it comes to the 49ers and their quarterbacks.
[PFT]
