Most have already written off the San Francisco 49ers following the season-ending injury to franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Everyone remembers what the offense looked like last year with then-rookie C.J. Beathard leading the squad. He was 1-4 as a starter while throwing for 1,185 yards with three touchdowns and five interceptions in those games before giving way to Garoppolo.
Beathard's teammates have a lot of confidence in the now second-year quarterback. That includes the NFL's leading rusher, Matt Breida (well, co-leader, actually).
"He's going to shock a lot of people," said Breida on Wednesday via Bay Area News Group. "A lot of people probably expect him to go in there and not do that great, but if you paid close attention last year, he's going to be great."
At least one member of the media is leaning toward agreeing with Breida. Adam Schefter joined KNBR on Thursday morning and shared why you may not want to assume it will be a repeat performance of 2017 for the quarterback. Although, the ESPN insider admits that the 49ers offense will not be capable of the same things it was with Garoppolo at the helm.
"I also think that C.J. Beathard will be better than people are expecting," Schefter said on the "Murph & Mac" show. "I think that he will be improved over what he was last year when he was a rookie quarterback and he was asked to play five games, and he went 1-4. And he's going to be better because he's been in the system for over a year now and he's had a chance to learn the offense and, basically, be better at the offense.
"So I think he's going to be better, improved. He's not going to be Jimmy G, and so that's an issue. He's going to be more mobile, and be able to run around and make some things happen."
No one is predicting Beathard and the 49ers to go on a Nick Foles and the Philadelphia Eagles-type run this season. Still, Schefter believes that San Francisco's quarterback situation isn't as dire as many assume.
"The Niners have a pretty good backup quarterback in C.J. Beathard," he said. "I think a lot of people don't realize that. I think he's going to be better than people think. Maybe I'm going to be wrong here, but I think he's better than people think."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Schefter below.