The San Francisco 49ers have suffered the injury most feared by an NFL franchise. Their starting quarterback is out for the rest of the year, and now they’ll have to figure out a path forward.

49ers C.J. Beathard Gets a Chance

Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL in week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs and has officially been placed on Injured Reserve. In the wake of these unfortunate developments, C.J. Beathard has been promoted to starter and gets the first chance to salvage a season on the verge of slipping away.

In response to losing Garoppolo, the 49ers also decided to bring in a handful of free agent quarterbacks for workouts. This group included Kyle Allen, Kellen Clemens, Landry Jones, EJ Manuel, Matt Simms, Tom Savage, and T.J. Yates. The team declined to sign any of these players, though, and instead opted to promote Nick Mullens from their practice squad to the active roster.

Kyle Shanahan’s offense is notoriously difficult to grasp, so Beathard was always the favorite to at least get the first look at starting quarterback in Garoppolo’s absence because of his familiarity with the playbook.

Three weeks into the regular season, the caliber of quarterbacks available as free agents isn’t all that impressive. With no better alternatives, Beathard should have a hold on the starting job for the remainder of the season.

Beathard is certainly flawed as a quarterback, though. His leadership qualities have been praised by his teammates, but the talent level isn’t totally inspiring.

He played in seven games last year, starting five. Beathard failed to impress while under center. He posted a quarterback rating of 69.2, a completion percentage of 54.9%, and four touchdowns to six interceptions.

What the Beathard Promotion Means Going Forward

The 49ers are in an interesting position right now. The Garoppolo injury happened early enough in the season that there’s still plenty of time to challenge for a playoff spot. They’re currently 1-2. It would be a completely different scenario if Garoppolo had gotten injured somewhere around week 10 and the 49ers were already in the far periphery of playoff contention.

It’s not like Beathard is being put in a position to essentially tread water in meaningless games while the 49ers march towards the offseason. The season is not lost, but the next couple of weeks are going to be gigantic in terms of assessing where this team is.

It’s going to be really interesting to see how long of a leash they keep on Beathard. Clearly, the team didn’t envision him as a starting-caliber quarterback, because they wouldn’t have made the Garoppolo trade if they did.

It makes sense that they didn’t sign anyone in the workout group they brought in because there’s no clear upgrade over Beathard amongst them. It’s likely that they want to see what Beathard can do with this supporting cast and more than a year immersed within this offensive system.

He’s not threatening to take the starting job into next season, both because of the amount of money they’ve already committed to Garoppolo and the obvious talent gap between the two of them. The best case scenario from management’s perspective is that Beathard serves as an adequate bridge into next season.

They don’t have any huge decisions to make right now, but there could be one on the horizon if Beathard plays terribly these next couple weeks.

Possible Trades to Bring in a Veteran Quarterback

Ideally, if the 49ers bring in another quarterback, the guy would need a couple weeks to familiarize himself with the playbook.

If Beathard loses these next two games or plays poorly, it’s going to be fascinating if the team is willing to let their season slip away without bringing in someone new. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a free agent quarterback. They could make a trade for a guy suddenly expendable to some team around the league.

Tyrod Taylor comes to mind, or Ryan Fitzpatrick if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers chose to go with Jameis Winston as their starter at some point this year.

A guy like Taylor or Fitzpatrick is an upgrade over Beathard and could serve as a short-term bandage to the 49ers’ quarterback issues until next season. Taylor or Fitzpatrick would cost some type of draft pick, so that’s the downside a trade has that a free agent acquisition doesn’t bring with it.

Management might very well be assessing this as a lost season and not make any major additions, but it just seems hasty to already reach that conclusion.

Beathard Controls his Destiny

This next week for Beathard is going to be huge. If he plays awfully against the San Diego Chargers, the clock is going to start ticking on this season.

Allowing for that 2-week window of a new quarterback getting up to speed on the playbook, a guy like Taylor or Fitzpatrick could theoretically start by week 7 if brought in.

By that point, the 49ers could be sitting at 1-5 and have fallen too far out of playoff contention for an acquisition like Taylor or Fitzpatrick to make a difference.

It’s a calculated risk because sending a draft pick away to acquire a veteran quarterback isn’t worth it if the team has no meaningful playoff chances.

It’s going to be really fascinating what the 49ers decide to do after week 4. It’s all going to depend on how Beathard plays.

If the 49ers win, it might still be a good decision to trade for a veteran quarterback, but at the same time, they might feel confident with Beathard going forward.

However, it would still be nice to have an alternative like Taylor or Fitzpatrick this season if Beathard begins to falter.

A strong case could be made that neither Taylor or Fitzpatrick is worth a draft pick just to serve as a bridge during a season that doesn’t look totally promising anyway as of now.

Maybe the team will just roll with Beathard with the super low expectations of this season already being lost.

If he wins and plays well, that’s great. If he doesn’t, then the team gets a high draft pick this offseason and they’ll simply try again next season with a healthy Garoppolo.

What’s clear, though, is that there’s a lot that’s going to be learned about this 49ers roster in week 4 against the Chargers, and key personnel decisions will be made based on those observations.

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