On Friday, quarterback Matt Barkley was the first reported roster casualty as the San Francisco 49ers started to make moves in order to get their roster to the required 53-man limit. On Saturday, the 49ers also let go of quarterback Nick Mullens, who is a candidate for the team's practice squad.
That means, as of right now, the 49ers are headed into the 2017 season with just two quarterbacks on their roster – starter Brian Hoyer and rookie C.J. Beathard. Of course, it is entirely possible that could change once the 49ers start making waiver wire moves. Following Saturday's roster deadline, general manager John Lynch explained the decision to keep just two quarterbacks on the roster during a conference call with the media.
"That's just a philosophy of [Kyle Shanahan]'s and one I agree with," Lynch said. "It's the way of the makeup of the roster in this league right now and the reality of it. But it's tough to get enough guys up to satisfy your needs at every position to have backups and to have special teams depth. If you can do it and if you can trust, 'Hey, we can make it with two,' then that's something -- yeah, do you roll the dice a little bit? Sure. But it's one that we feel is a calculated risk that we're willing to take.
"Brian, as you know, we've been very pleased with the way he's performed and C.J. has shown us that this is not too big for him and all the things that we liked when we drafted him. As I said during camp, it was less of what Matt Barkley didn't do, it was more of what those two did. At that point, we felt comfortable with going ahead and making that decision of going with two and those two being the guys."
Hoyer was signed at the start of free agency and Beathard was drafted in the third round of April's draft. During three preseason games, Hoyer completed 21 of his 32 passes for 268 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. During four preseason games, Beathard completed 26 of his 45 passes for 401 yards, four touchdowns, and an interception. He also rushed for 80 yards on three attempts during Thursday night's win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
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