49ers won’t pick QB until late in preseason
The San Francisco 49ers had a late surge last season when Shaun Hill became the quarterback, but that hasn’t stopped new full-time coach Mike Singletary from declaring an open competition between Hill and former No. 1 overall draft pick Alex Smith, who has been incredibly disappointing when not injured during his career.
While Hill was seem the logical and obvious choice, Singletary says his decision on a starter won’t come before the third preseason game. Obviously the coach is hoping competition brings out the best in both guys.
“One of the things I feel very strongly about is one of those guys is going to take us where we need to go,” Singletary said. “I have two quarterbacks I feel very confident about. I don’t have one great guy. I have two good guys and somebody is going to step up and the next guy has to be ready.”
A team’s third exhibition game is the one preseason game most used as a dress rehearsal for the regular season, so the starter against Dallas on Aug. 29 will likely be the Week 1 starter against the Cardinals, a team that beat San Francisco twice last year and is a 6.5-point Week 1 favorite on WagerWeb.com.
Hill and Smith will wage their battle for the starting quarterback job when camp opens July 30 and in exhibition games Aug. 14 against Denver and Aug. 22 against the Raiders.
Supposedly Smith looked good during offseason workouts and closed the gap on Hill, who threw for 2,046 yards and 13 TDs in nine games last year. He led the Niners to four wins in their final six games. Smith missed all of last year with an injury.
There’s almost no way that Smith wins this job – Singletary is just trying to build his confidence because it’s unlikely Hill makes it through the season unscathed, so Smith will be needed at some point. And this is the former Utah star’s likely last season in San Francisco if he doesn’t perform well.
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