Why the 49ers Quarterback Competition is Trending Towards Being Useless

It's not a true 49ers offseason without an update at the quarterback position.

Brock Purdy is reportedly headed to Jacksonville Monday to throw the next couple weeks with quarterbacks coach Will Hewlett and ortho specialist Tom Gormely, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

Each and every week there continues to be progress reports of Purdy's recovery. But honestly, they are more or less the same update all the time. Still, the fact it is all the same means it is positive since there are no hiccups Purdy's return to the field. Even Albert Breer of The MMQB is echoing and cementing the news of Purdy trending in the right direction.

"Everything has checked out to this point," Breer said. "And Purdy made it to the June crossroads where his timeline would be better defined, being put on a throwing program that puts him on track to be ready for Week 1. Which is great news."

With the way things are going, it looks more likely than not that Purdy will start Week 1 of the regular season for the 49ers. That means that all of the hoopla about a "quarterback competition" between Trey Lance and Sam Darnold was useless. Really, all that story did was give people something to talk about.

The only way it actually proved fruitful is if one of them ended up starting the regular season. Aside from that, they've just been practicing regularly to see where they will sit on the depth chart as the backup to Purdy. It doesn't carry much significance at all who the backup is. The only story that will be made here is where Lance is specifically, but really, I don't see how it matters.

No matter which way you look at it, the 49ers have given up on developing Lance or trying to make it work with him. Darnold is a glorified backup, so his depth chart position doesn't matter either. He is where he is supposed to be, which just goes to show that if Purdy is good for the start of the regular season that the "quarterback competition" was useless from the jump.