The San Francisco 49ers brought in free agent veteran quarterback Mac Jones this offseason to back up Brock Purdy.
Purdy recently signed a five-year, $265 million deal to stay with the 49ers at least for the near future, but it never hurts to have a capable backup quarterback in the ranks, especially one with Purdy's injury history.
ESPN's Bill Barnwell wrote about each team's biggest candidate to post either a breakout or flop season, and Jones was targeted for San Francisco. Barnwell noted his trajectory being similar to that of former Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold.
"If there's one player attempting to explicitly go on the Darnold rejuvenation path, it's Jones. Darnold restarted his career by joining the 49ers in 2023, where he spent the season as a backup to Brock Purdy. Darnold threw only 46 passes in a San Francisco uniform, most of which came in a meaningless Week 18 game against the Rams. Working with coach Kyle Shanahan apparently did enough to rebuild Darnold's confidence before he left for a one-year deal with Minnesota, though. You know what happened next. ... Now, he gets to work with Shanahan, who debated drafting him over Trey Lance at No. 3 in 2021.
"Jones' lone successful season as a pro puts him one ahead of the guy the 49ers did go with, but I'm not sure either of those moves would be considered a success. Four years later, Shanahan got his man to back up Purdy on a two-year, $8.4 million deal."
This could be Jones' big year to make enough of an impression to land a bigger deal next season, and perhaps even find a starting job to continue that Sam Darnold trajectory.