Analyzing Day 17 of the 2023 49ers QB Competition

SANTA CLARA -- Here's what Brock Purdy, Sam Darnold and Trey Lance did on Day 17 of 49ers training camp.

BROCK PURDY

Had a typical day for Brock Purdy -- 15 of 18 with one sack, one pick-six, one dropped interception and one badly missed deep throw. Which means Purdy was perfect other than his three incompletions. So maybe he really is the best quarterback on the roster. But the longer he plays, the more interceptions he seems to throw. Today, he threw an interception to defensive end Drake Jackson during a screen pass -- the play was a mirror image of the interception Trey Lance threw against the Broncos on Saturday. The dropped interception was thrown directly at Talanoa Hufanga, who simply dropped it. And the missed deep throw was intended for Brandon Aiyuk up the right sideline, but the pass was extremely underthrown and landed out of bounds. Purdy clearly is better at throwing to his left than to his right for some odd reason -- defenses will learn this tendency and intercept more and more of his passes. It's happening every day in camp -- the more the defense faces Brock and learns his limitations, the more he turns the ball over. That doesn't bode well for his career. But at least he's still better than Sam Darnold.

SAM DARNOLD

Completed 5 of 7 passes with one dropped interception on a quick pass to the flat that was intended for Brayden Willis. Darnold also made two nice throws downfield, but on his one third down of practice -- 3rd and 8 -- he threw an incomplete pass behind Isaiah Winstead. Darnold makes impressive throws every day, but he can't seem to drive the offense down the field because he's not good on third down. In the preseason, his third down passer rating is a mere 15.8, which is a big reason he has led the 49ers to just 7 points in 8 drives.

TREY LANCE

Completed 4 of 7 passes with a drop by wide receiver Willie Snead. Which means Lance was the only quarterback who didn't get picked off or almost picked off today. But he had the lowest completion percentage of the three, which probably means the 49ers will demote him to third-string. If they've been judging him based on his 7 throws from camp every day, no wonder they're down on him -- Lance gets better as the day goes along, and they barely let him break a sweat.