Brock Purdy’s toe injury has given Will Anderson Jr. another opportunity to take aim at former Alabama teammate Mac Jones.
Signed by San Francisco as a free agent in March to back up Purdy, Jones will be starting at quarterback for the sixth time in eight games when the 49ers take on the Houston Texans on Sunday.
In his first season with the Crimson Tide, Anderson contributed seven sacks as Alabama completed the 2020 campaign undefeated and won the CFP national championship. Jones earned All-American recognition in his final season with the Tide that year.
Now a defensive end for the Texans, Anderson said Jones got off on the wrong foot with him when they were Tuscaloosa teammates.
“My freshman year at Alabama, early in the road,” Anderson said. “And we were going through the fourth-quarter program, and this is when he was announced to start at QB. And we had a little rough showing at first. We were walking around after doing our break, and I don’t even know, he’s always leading during fourth quarter somehow. And he walks up to me randomly, and he was like, ‘Stars don’t (expletive) matter here.’ And that was the first interaction we had. And I was like, ‘This guy’s a (expletive) (expletive), man.’
“But ever since then, we’ve been cool, and I’m excited for him, man. I can’t wait for this matchup.”
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Anderson and Jones have squared off once in the NFL, when Houston defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 23-20 on Dec. 1, 2024. Anderson did not sack Jones in the game.
“He always has his little corny jokes,” Anderson said of Jones, “but he’s a really good dude, man. I love Mac, man, and I enjoyed playing with him.”
While the 49ers have a 4-1 record with Jones in the lineup and are 5-2 overall, Houston owns a 2-4 mark after winning one playoff game in each of the previous two seasons.
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The Texans lost to the Seattle Seahawks 27-19 on Monday night even though Anderson scored the first touchdown of his NFL career. Anderson had a strip-sack of quarterback Sam Darnold and recovered the fumble in the end zone.
“Man, it’s crazy because God was working in crazy ways, man,” Anderson said. “He just be up there doing anything. I’m not going to lie, you get frustrated in the game. And I think one of the biggest things of going into the rest of the season, I was like, ‘God, I’m not going to put a limit on how you could use me’ and stuff like that. So we was going into the game free.”
Despite their record, the Texans have given up the fewest points and the second-fewest yards in the NFL this season. But Houston ranks 27th in points and the Texans offense is 30th in yards gained among the 32 NFL teams in 2025.
“We’re all in this together,” Anderson said. “At the end of the day, it’s not just defense, it’s not just offense, it’s not just special teams, man. We’re all one group, man. So everybody has to be firing on all cylinders. And we’re a couple of plays away, a couple of scores away, man, a couple of stops away from really winning ballgames. And I really feel like this week, we have a really perfect opportunity, man, to really just put it all together.”
The 49ers and Texans will square off at noon CDT Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Jones has taken note of the Houston defense.
“They’re really, really good,” Jones said. “Top defense in the league. Great front, great linebackers and really solid secondary. So they play together. They’ve played a lot of football together, to be honest. A really talented group, well-coached, and definitely have a big challenge on Sunday.”
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