The San Francisco 49ers are set at the Nos. 1 and 2 spots on their depth chart at the quarterback position with Brock Purdy and Mac Jones, respectively.
However, there could be a good competition between Tanner Mordecai and Kurtis Rourke for the No. 3 spot.
A competition between two quarterbacks for the emergency QB roster spot may not be the most thrilling thing to consider. However, competitions like that can be some of the more interesting battles to watch in the preseason. Plus, we have seen with our own eyes that third-string quarterbacks can become franchise quarterbacks in the blink of an eye.
Mordecai signed with the Niners last year as an undrafted free agent and was on the team's practice squad for the season. He had some solid seasons in college, most notably in 2021 in SMU when he threw for 3,628 yards in 12 games with 39 touchdown passes compared to 12 interceptions.
Mordecai followed that up with another solid season in 2022, throwing for 3,524 yards with 33 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He transferred to Wisconsin for his final year of collegiate play and had 2,066 passing yards with 9 touchdown passes and four interceptions. He also proved to be fairly mobile, rushing for over 300 yards and four touchdowns with Wisconsin.
The Texas native got a little bit of preseason action with the 49ers last season. He completed six of his 10 pass attempts for 103 passing yards. Now in his second season, he is a name to watch on the depth chart.
His main competition for that emergency quarterback role will be rookie Rourke. San Francisco selected Rourke in the seventh round of the 2025 NFL Draft out of Indiana. He too put up some impressive numbers in college. At Ohio University in 2022 he threw for 3,257 yards with 25 touchdown passes and four interceptions.
He transferred to Indiana for his final year of college and helped lead the Hoosiers to the College Football Playoff with a record of 11-2 including their loss to Notre Dame in the first round of the CFP. Rourke finished the season with 3,042 passing yards and 29 touchdown passes compared to five interceptions. Some are already predicting a Purdy-like trajectory for Rourke given they were both seventh-round draft picks.
Now, there's a caveat in all this, considering Rourke suffered (and played through) a torn ACL his final year in college, so there's the full possibility the Niners opt to redshirt him via placement on the non-football injury list (applies to collegiate injuries).
But, if his recovery is complete in time...
It will be interesting to see how these two signal-callers fare in training camp and the preseason. Obviously, the hope is that neither of them sees any NFL action this year and Purdy is able to take every meaningful snap with Jones only coming in for garbage time, but we know how injuries can change things quickly so this competition for the emergency QB role could be more important than one would think.
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