Rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard helped lift the San Francisco 49ers to their first win of the season on Sunday. Like most of his teammates, Beathard will follow up the victory with some much-needed rest as the 49ers head into their bye week. He plans to spend a little bit of time this week at the team's facility getting treatment before leaving on Thursday to Iowa for the Hawkeyes' game against the Purdue Boilermakers this weekend.
Other than an injury to his thumb, Beathard escaped Sunday's 31-21 victory over the New York Giants relatively unscathed. That hasn't been the case in recent weeks, so it was a welcome change. The quarterback was under pressure on just four of his 27 dropbacks against the Giants, according to Pro Football Focus.
"Obviously, my thumb hurts," Beathard told Matt Maiocco this week on his podcast for NBC Sports Bay Area, "but I feel really healthy."
Beathard has started the last four games for the 49ers. Right now, he plans to prepare for the team's next game – a November 26 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks – as if he is the starter. Of course, that is dependent on the progress of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, whom the 49ers acquired via a trade two weeks ago.
Beathard discussed what it was like to first hear about the trade, which came the day after his second career start. The move saw Garoppolo enter the quarterback room and former starter Brian Hoyer depart it.
"Obviously, it was my first taste of the whole business side of things," Beathard said. "At the end of the day, the NFL is a business ... Was I a little shocked at first? Yeah, but I had a good conversation with [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] all week throughout that, and he made it clear it had nothing to do with the previous weeks. It was just an opportunity to make the team better and make a quarterback room better. There's nothing better than good competition. I think competition brings out the best in anyone.
"Jimmy, he's a good guy. I said this before: It would be different if he was a guy that was cocky, a guy that nobody liked, but that's not the case. He's a nice guy, and it's been cool getting to work with him."
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In August, C.J. got to see his grandfather, Bobby Beathard, become a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Nominated as a contributor, the elder Beathard, unlike other finalists, simply needs 80-percent of the voters to back his entry.
C.J. Beathard never asked for his famous grandfather, who had executive roles in Miami, Washington, and San Diego, to evaluate his play as a quarterback. However, the elder Beathard did offer his grandson some advice when choosing a college to play football.
"I wanted to play in a system that was a pro-style system," the younger Beathard said. "That's one thing, a tip I did get from my grandpa, actually. He told me, 'If you want to play, you'd be better off going to a place where they have a pro-style offense just because it's so hard to judge things and scout things when you're in a spread offense where you throw it all the time.'
"There's so many offenses where it doesn't matter who you put in there; they're going to throw the ball 60 times a game. They're going to throw it for a ton of yards and some touchdowns. But I think being able to play in a system where you break a huddle, you call the play, you're under center, you're making checks at the line of scrimmage, I think that really helped me and has helped me in the long run."
Whether the situation changes shortly or not, Beathard is the starting quarterback for the 49ers right now. The quarterback is not looking beyond the present and certainly isn't thinking about what might happen after this season. Maiocco asked Beathard, who has a lot of trust in Shanahan and general manager John Lynch, about his future and if he views Garoppolo as competition.
"I'm really just focused on, right now, just kind of relaxing this bye week," Beathard said. "It's nice to have a couple of days off and unwind a little bit, but our next game is Seattle, and I'm going to do my best to help the team win and give ourselves the best chance to win. I trust Kyle's decision and John's decision. I want to help this team win and get more wins down the road. I'm just going to keep going to work and trying to get better. I think I've learned a lot the last four weeks and got better as a player and I just want to continue to work and get better."
When the 49ers return from their break, they will focus on Seattle and then the five games that follow. Finishing the season strong is important to the team.
"We've got six games left, and we want to finish this season off on the right note," Beathard said. "That was a good start, obviously, getting this win. We want to get a lot more wins here before the season's over."
You can listen to the entire interview with Beathard below.
