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The 49ers Think Mac Jones Still Can be a Starting NFL Quarterback

High praise for a quarterback who has lost 19 of his past 25 starts.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 22, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Mac Jones (10) throws against the Las Vegas Raiders in the first half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Dec 22, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Mac Jones (10) throws against the Las Vegas Raiders in the first half at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Technically, the 49ers didn't sign any starters this offseason.

Instead, they lost nine starting players and replaced them with rookies from the draft and backups in free agency. The only free-agent signing who has a legitimate chance to start Week 1 is safety Jason Pinnock and that's because Malik Mustapha might not miss a few games as he recovers from a torn ACL.

But the 49ers also signed Mac Jones, and he uses to be a starting quarterback. In fact, he has started 49 games and gone to a Pro Bowl. And he's still just 26-years-old.

That's why 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak loves Jones.

“Going back to college, we obviously studied Mac coming out and we thought very highly of him and his skillset as a thrower and the things he did in college," Kubiak said.

"And then obviously as a rookie, what he did in the NFL was very impressive. Mac’s a really good thrower. He stands in the pocket, he's a strong guy and he's really smart. And so he’s got a lot of traits that we like for a starting quarterback. And his career has kind of gone up and down a little bit the past couple years, but we saw the same things in Jacksonville that we loved about him as a college prospect, and that really excites us. And he's doing a great job. And I think Mac’s capable of being a starter in this league. And so he's going to help us if he needs to.”

High praise for a quarterback who has lost 19 of his past 25 starts.

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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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