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Who Will the 49ers Hire as Their Next Quarterback Coach?

It seems like John Beck is the 49ers' unofficial quarterback coach. He played for Kyle Shanahan in Washington, and already has a head start coaching Shanahan's next franchise quarterback.
Grant Cohn|
Who Will the 49ers Hire as Their Next Quarterback Coach?
Who Will the 49ers Hire as Their Next Quarterback Coach?

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San Francisco 49ers

Tom Pelissero wrote something rather amusing when he reported that former quarterback coach Rich Scangarello had left the 49ers to become the offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky.

Scangarello clearly has value as a coach -- that's why Kentucky hired him as an offensive coordinator, and why the Denver Broncos hired him for the same position in 2018, although they fired him after just one year.

But despite how good of a tactician and football mind Scangarello might be, he certainly is not "a widely respected quarterback developer." As far as I can tell, he hasn't developed any quarterbacks. The only one he possibly could put on his resume is Jimmy Garoppolo, but he hasn't developed since the 49ers traded for him in 2017. That's precisely why the 49ers spent three firsts and a third-round pick to replace him just last year.

So Scangarello's departure shouldn't hurt the 49ers, because what they need is an actual quarterback developer. Someone with a track record of success. Someone who specializes in the mechanics of playing quarterback, not x's and o's.

That's the kind of position coach Kris Kocurek is. He's the defensive line coach, and arguably the best assistant on the 49ers staff. He doesn't seem to aspire to be a coordinator. He is a defensive line specialist, a damn good one.

That's the kind of quarterback coach Trey Lance desperately needs. And he's working with one this offseason -- quarterback guru John Beck, who will fine tune Lance's throwing mechanics and footwork.

It seems like Beck is the 49ers' unofficial quarterback coach. He played for Kyle Shanahan in Washington, and already has a head start coaching Shanahan's next franchise quarterback. 

I say give Beck the title and make it official.

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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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