49ers’ C.J. Beathard discusses offense’s rough practice, backup QB battle, his growth in third NFL season

San Francisco 49ers quarterback C.J. Beathard spoke with reporters on Tuesday after the first practice of mandatory minicamp. Here is everything he had to say.

Transcript provided by the San Francisco 49ers Communications staff.

You connected well with WR Marquise Goodwin today a couple times. Then there was kind of a little case of the drops a little later. Can you just give a summary of today's practice?

"There were a lot of ups and downs in today's practice as there is in any practice. Kind of like in a game, the offense has nice plays, the defense will come back with a couple good plays. They had a couple of nice strips there towards the end. But, I don't think we'd be a good all-around team if we were just killing the defense every practice or if they were just beating up on us. I think it's a good competition out there when, you know, we get our plays and when they get theirs, their right share of plays."

Is it difficult to practice and do everything that you're doing knowing that there is going to be a pretty significant competition between you and QB Nick Mullens come training camp?

"No. I don't think, I mean me and Nick are friends, good friends off the field. I think our whole room is just a really good group of guys in general and we're all friends off the field and at the end of the day you're just out there playing football and doing the best you can do with your reps and it's just fun when you're out on the field."

Can you evaluate how you think you've done over the last couple months?

"Yeah, I thought I've had a good OTAs. I feel comfortable about it, I feel real good about it and I've got one more tomorrow. I hope we finish up strong tomorrow."

Do you think that competition is helping you?

"Yeah, I really do. I think anytime you have competition, especially from guys that are in the room, good players, it makes you better, it really does."

How much more is this going to ramp up when you guys get to camp and pass rushers can actually get to you and you've got to time yourself in the pocket?

"I mean, anytime you're playing live it's different, definitely. It's also different when you're not going up against your defense every single day. So, it'll be nice when you get out there against the real opponents and you can feel what it feels like to get hit again, but I'm looking forward to it."

This being your third year in the system, are you experiencing your understanding of it expanding and are you guys able to do a little bit with more just in terms of play book and more complicated things?

"Yeah, definitely. I think with each year comes better knowledge of the game and we've got three quote unquote veteran guys right now that have played significant snaps in games and I think that just ramps up what [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] can throw at us and what we can handle, because we've been in the system for three years now."

And WR Dante Pettis and TE George Kittle have talked about the learning curve from their rookie season to their second and third years and how much easier it comes to them later on. I assume you are experiencing the same thing?

"Oh yeah, no doubt, every year you just feel that much more comfortable with the offense and the system and just with the guys that you're around. You know guys a lot better. You know how Dante runs routes, George, all these guys that you kind of know when they're going to break and you just feel a lot more comfortable with these guys."

Who coaches you guys up mainly in the quarterback room now that Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello is gone? I know you have a few different coaches in there.

"Yeah, we have more coaches than players right now it seems like. But [quarterbacks coach] Shane [Day] is our quarterback coach so he's in there with us all the time. [Passing game coordinator] Mike LaFleur is in there all the time with us. [Offensive assistant] Bobby Slowik is in there with us all the time and then Kyle pops in for most of the big tape meetings. Some days before practice we'll just be talking about what we're thinking today in practice, but when it comes to watching tape, dissecting tape, Kyle's in there usually with us."

It's not like one coach is assigned one quarterback?

"No, it's just kind of collective input and it makes us all better."

What is Shane like as a coach?

"He's awesome. He's got a lot of energy, a big energy guy, real smart, real intellectual. I think he's made us all better. He harps on details a lot and I think that makes us all better in the long run."

You said he was working with you on your pocket awareness. What steps has he taken to help you with that?

"Just drills every day. Working on movement drills, throwing off parallel platforms because a lot of times you're gonna have to throw with a guy in your face or backing up and whatnot and just kind of feeling the pocket stepping up and stuff like that."

Have you sensed any extra excitement from QB Jimmy Garoppolo being out there, maybe the first time back or something like that where he's very happy to be out there?

"He's been out there the whole time. What do you mean?"

Just like when he's on the field, something that he missed, like he hasn't been out there until these OTAs and stuff.

"Oh, oh. I mean, I think any of us get mad when we miss something. Obviously, I think whoever it happens to is the most mad at themselves. If I miss something I'll be more mad at myself than anybody else out there could be mad at me and likewise goes for Jimmy and Nick. I know that's how they think and any competitor would say the same."

With you being friends with Nick is it one of those things where you leave work at work, you guys don't talk about?

"Yeah, 100-percent. We pretty much hang out every night in the hotel, because we're in a hotel only a couple rooms down the hall. On the weekends we golf pretty much every weekend with a group of four guys. We're real close off the field for sure."

Who wins?

"I mean, actually we're pretty competitive on that, but it's pretty even. Most of the time we'll go with four guys and [QB] Wilton Speight is actually a really good golfer, we found out he's really good. So, it will be me and Nick playing best ball versus Wilton and someone who's not as good but he's decent, don't want to drop any names [WR] Max McCaffrey."