Those looking to see more of rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard in preseason will get their wish on Saturday. While Beathard appeared as the San Francisco 49ers' third quarterback on an unofficial depth chart released on Tuesday, head coach Kyle Shanahan officially confirmed that the rookie will be the team's backup quarterback to Brian Hoyer when facing the Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium.
How long will Beathard play once he is in the game? "We haven't fully decided that," Shanahan said. "It depends what type of drives he gets, who starts with the ball, who ends with the ball. My hunch is he'd open up the third quarter, but we'll see."
Matt Barkley, who was Hoyer's backup against the Kansas City Chiefs last week, is scheduled to be the third quarterback to enter the game. The starters are expected to get more work than they did last week and will likely play into the second quarter.
Beathard and Barkley are competing to be Hoyer's backup this season. Thursday's joint practice with the Broncos represented the 49ers' final practice of their three-week training camp.
Against the Chiefs, Beathard completed seven of his 11 passes for 101 yards and two touchdowns while leading a fourth quarter comeback for a 27-17 win.
Beathard was selected out of Iowa with the 40th pick in the third round (104 overall) of the 2017 NFL Draft. He was a redshirt freshman in 2013 and didn't see significant playing time until the next year when he appeared in nine games with one start. Beathard was the Hawkeyes' starter in 2015 as a junior and ended up as the team's MVP after completing 61.6-percent of his passes for 2,809 pass yards, 17 touchdowns, and five interceptions. During his senior year, he completed 56.5-percent of his passes for 1,929 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions.