Is Mac Jones better than a certain former 49ers starting quarterback?

It's time to ask the question.

Jul 23, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks Brock Purdy (13) and Mac Jones (10) work on passing drills during the first day of training camp at SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

Mac Jones clearly isn't better than Brock Purdy -- that's evident when you watch them practice side by side. Purdy is an elusive playmaker, and Jones is not.

But Jones definitely is better than both backups the 49ers had last season (Brandon Allen and Josh Dobbs), and he just might be better than a few of their previous starting quarterbacks.

Is Mac Jones better than Jimmy Garoppolo?

The 49ers nearly drafted Jones in 2021 to replace Jimmy Garoppolo. Instead, they drafted Trey Lance, who was the wrong pick. In retrospect, Jones would have been a better fit for the 49ers. And if they had drafted him, he might be the one making $53 million per season right now instead of Purdy. We might not even know who Purdy is.

Just look at how much success Garoppolo had with the 49ers. He won 67 percent of his regular season starts, he went to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl, and his passer rating was 99.2. And he's a backup quarterback, as we've learned since he left the 49ers. A good backup, but a backup nonetheless.

Jul 28, 2021; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (10) runs with the ball during training camp at the SAP Performance Facility. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

Garoppolo is accurate and he has a quick release. He's good at throwing short and intermediate passes over the middle. But he doesn't throw outside the numbers particularly well and he's terrible at throwing deep. In addition, he's slow, he can't protect himself and he gets injured frequently.

Jones also is accurate and slow. And like Garoppolo, he was drafted by the Patriots, both had some success. Jones went to the Pro Bowl as a rookie. Since then, he has struggled on bad teams.

But he throws a much better deep pass than Garoppolo. Jones' has excellent trajectory while Garoppolo's is flat and off target.

In terms of physical attributes, Jones has Garoppol beat -- that's why Jones was a first-round pick and Garoppolo was a second-rounder. We'll see if those attributes lead to success for Jones on his new team.