July is almost over, August is right around the corner, and the 49ers are about to get into preseason action. Even with the season drawing closer, there are still real questions hanging over San Francisco as it looks ahead to 2026.
At quarterback, the biggest one starts with Brock Purdy and his ability to stay on the field.
Purdy has not really fit the label of injury-prone. “Dinged up” might be the better way to describe it.
The 26-year-old has dealt with a range of injuries, but the timing and severity usually kept him from missing much time until the 2025 season. He played through an oblique issue in 2022 before a Thursday night game in Seattle and helped the 49ers beat the Seahawks.
Later that season, an elbow injury ended his year and knocked San Francisco out of the NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia. Even so, he didn’t miss any games the next season, using the offseason to recover.
The 2023 season was mostly clean, aside from a concussion that put him on the injury report before a Week 8 loss to the Bengals, a game that capped a three-game losing streak. In 2024, the story was similar, with a right shoulder injury standing out as the lone interruption and forcing him to miss a lopsided loss to the Packers.
Entering 2025, Purdy had missed only three games because of injury. Then turf toe changed everything, costing him half the season. Mac Jones stepped in and kept the 49ers afloat until Purdy returned in Week 11 and finished the year, nearly carrying San Francisco to an NFC West crown.
So the question is simple: can Purdy get through a full season without the usual bumps and bruises turning into something bigger?
If he does, the next question is whether he can level up.
That’s the real puzzle with Purdy. He’s been sitting in that middle tier of quarterback rankings that always gets debated this time of year, but what would it take for him to push into the top 10?
The first answer is cleaner ball security. Purdy has thrown double-digit interceptions in each of his last three seasons, and that includes a 2025 campaign in which he played only nine games.
He threw 10 picks in those nine games, which gave him a career-high 3.5 interception rate and marked the first time he’s been above three percent.
Since his debut in 2022, Purdy has the second-highest interception rate in the league among quarterbacks with at least 1,000 pass attempts. That’s not the company you want to keep, even if he’s probably the best quarterback on that list. If that number comes down, Purdy can move from very good toward the elite conversation.
A full, healthy season could help. So could the 49ers’ revamped receiver room. However it happens, there’s clearly another gear available, and 2026 feels like the year San Francisco hopes it all starts to click.
Then there’s Mac Jones.
That situation is easier to imagine through a hypothetical. The 2026 trade deadline falls on November 10, and let’s say the 49ers are 6-2 by Week 10. Purdy is healthy, playing the best football of his career, and showing no signs of slowing down.
Now picture the rest of the league. The Vikings are 4-4, hanging around in the NFC North behind their defense but getting shaky quarterback play from either Kyler Murray or JJ McCarthy. Maybe the Falcons or Colts are also doing fine, but not exactly thrilled with what they’re getting under center.
In that kind of scenario, one of those teams could come calling with a second-round pick, maybe a third, for Jones as a way to steady the position. Jones is on an expiring deal, which puts the 49ers in a real spot: do they move what might be the league’s best backup quarterback, or keep him as the ultimate insurance policy?
That decision doesn’t need to be made now. But if a situation like that develops over the next few months, San Francisco will have a choice to make.
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49ers Could Be Headed For Their Biggest Offensive Shakeup In Years
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There is a similar sense of change at tight end, where Jake Tonges new contract extension points to a larger role behind George Kittle and hints at a different usage pattern for the offense as a whole. If Tonges is going to be on the field more often, it could naturally squeeze the snaps available to Kyle Juszczyk, which makes this one of those offseason shifts that could quietly alter how the 49ers line up in more than one way. [Read more 🡒]