Brian Hoyer’s 49ers debut was one to forget. The veteran quarterback was unable to get anything of substance going on offense, was sacked four times, and threw a bad interception right to Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly en route to a 23-3 home loss.
The performance was enough for local NFL analysts Guy Haberman and John Middlekauff to start mapping out how long it will be until Hoyer is pulled as the 49ers’ starter this season, in favor of rookie C.J. Beathard. Beathard, a third-round pick in the 2017 Draft, was impressive in the preseason, playing well enough to win the starting job over Matt Barkley, and leading some the speculate that the 49ers may already have their QB of the future.
According to Haberman and Middlekauff, that could be the very near future, saying via their podcast that they expect to see Beathard with the first-team offense in a handful of weeks.
“Part of the reason (the loss to Carolina) was bad, and boring, was what we’ve been saying for a long time: Brian Hoyer is not going to look good,” Haberman said. “It’s funny you look at the numbers — 24-of-35 for 193 (yards), no touchdowns and a pick, took four sacks — it was all around not a thrilling effort. What’s the over under on C.J. Beathard’s first start John? After we went to our first Niners practice I think that topic the next day on the podcast was like, we’re gonna see C.J. Beathard soon. But I think the question was like, is C.J. Beathard gonna start four games, I don’t remember exactly how we phrased it. The point basically was, he’s going to start even if Brian Hoyer doesn’t get hurt. C.J. Beathard is going to play. The 49ers play at Seattle, they host the Rams, they play at Arizona, they play at (Indianapolis), they play at Washington. I’ll give you my early C.J. Beathard game and it’s Week 5 at Indianapolis.”
Middlekauff agreed.
“That’s the week I have circled too,” Middlekauff said. That’s the easiest landing spot for him because the (Colts) are terrible. To me that’s the spot because if you’re 0-4 and he looks terrible…He’s going to look worse than he did (last Sunday) this week (vs Seattle). (Colin) Kaepernick in his prime looked sh***y up there, he’s going to look horrendous. Aaron Rodgers Sunday, (the Packers) scored 17 points at home against (the Seahawks).”
The Seahawks are favored to beat San Francisco by two touchdowns this weekend. Anything less than that will be seen as both a success for the 49ers and Hoyer.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear the guys’ comments on Hoyer, start from the beginning.