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Why the 49ers Haven't Had a Franchise Quarterback in 20 Years

Once you have an elite quarterback, you always have a legitimate chance to win a Super Bowl -- the 49ers proved that for 20 years.
Grant Cohn|
Why the 49ers Haven't Had a Franchise Quarterback in 20 Years
Why the 49ers Haven't Had a Franchise Quarterback in 20 Years

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers current ownership group -- the Yorks -- like to pretend they inherited a lemonade stand and transformed it into a Fortune 500 company.

Obviously, the 49ers were much more than a mere lemonade stand when the Yorks took over in 2000. They inherited an iconic franchise and five championships from Eddie DeBartolo Jr. They also inherited a franchise quarterback -- Jeff Garcia -- as well as the vice president who acquired Garcia -- Bill Walsh.

But after 2000, Walsh stepped down as vice president. And after 2003, the 49ers released Garcia, who had gone to three consecutive Pro Bowls from 2000 to 2002. Apparently, he wasn't good enough for the Yorks.

Here is the complete list of starting quarterbacks the Yorks have acquired since they released the one franchise QB Walsh left them:

  1. Tim Rattay
  2. Ken Dorsey
  3. Alex Smith
  4. Cody Pickett
  5. Trent Dilfer
  6. Shaun Hill
  7. Chris Weinke
  8. J.T. O'Sullivan
  9. Troy Smith
  10. Colin Kaepernick
  11. Blaine Gabbert
  12. Brian Hoyer
  13. C.J. Beathard
  14. Jimmy Garoppolo
  15. Nick Mullens
  16. Trey Lance
  17. Brock Purdy

What do these quarterbacks have in common? None of them ever went to a Pro Bowl with the 49ers. That's a fact. And that's pathetic. Even the Browns have had a Pro Bowl quarterback in that time span.

The Yorks have done some excellent things with the 49ers. They have acquired elite running backs, elite wide receivers, elite tight ends, elite offensive tackles, elite defensive linemen and elite linebackers. They even built a new stadium, which definitely isn't elite, but the previous owner couldn't build one.

Still, the NFL is a quarterback-driven league. All those other things are nice, but the quarterback IS the franchise. Once you have an elite quarterback, you always have a legitimate chance to win a Super Bowl -- the 49ers proved that for 20 years.

The ole lemonade stand had franchise quarterbacks in place for two decades. The new fortune 500 company has a cheap quarterback room full of youngsters and retreads. It's possible one of them will emerge as a Pro Bowler eventually. But until then, it seems clear the 49ers have no eye for the most important position on the team.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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