While 49ers backup quarterback Mac Jones continued a resurgent 2025 in a 34-24 win over the Giants in Week 9, he will not play his way into the team’s starting job. Head coach Kyle Shanahan made it clear on Monday that Jones will return to a No. 2 role when starter Brock Purdy is ready to come back from a toe injury.

Asked if Jones’ play has allowed the 49ers to be more cautious with Purdy, Shanahan said (via Matt Barrows of The Athletic): “They’re not related. This is Brock’s team. When Brock’s good to go and everything and can play like Brock, there’s no decision to be made.” 

After going 15th overall to the Patriots in the 2021 draft, Jones finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting and helped the Pats to a playoff berth. The Alabama product was unable to replicate his first-season output with the Patriots or the Jaguars from 2022-24, though, leading him to ink a two-year, $7MM contract with the 49ers last offseason.

Jones reportedly turned down richer offers to function as Purdy’s backup, but choosing San Francisco has worked out well for him and the team. With Purdy having missed seven of the 49ers’ nine games, including five in a row, Jones has led the 6-3 club to a 5-2 record in his starts. The 27-year-old has completed 67.2% of passes for 1,832 yards, 10 touchdowns, and five interceptions in the process. He ranks a solid 15th in the league in QBR.

After picking up his fourth win in Week 7, Jones earned $400K in incentives, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Network. He collected another $100K for the 49ers’ Week 9 victory, which will continue to be the case as long as he plays at least 25% of offensive snaps, according to Dan Graziano of ESPN. Jones will rake in another $550K if he plays 50% of offensive snaps this season and the 49ers earn a playoff berth.

It’s unclear whether Purdy will play this Sunday against the NFC West rival Rams (6-2), who lost at home to Jones and the 49ers in Week 5. Regardless, it’s unsurprising that Shanahan is continuing to back Purdy, one of the team’s greatest individual success stories during his eight-plus years as the head coach.

Purdy quickly went from Mr. Irrelevant – the last overall pick in the 2022 draft – to establishing himself as a high-end starter. The 49ers went 17-4 with Purdy at the helm through the 2023 regular season, which ended with an overtime loss to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII.

San Francisco failed to make the playoffs during an injury-plagued 2024 in which Purdy’s numbers declined. However, that didn’t stop the 49ers from signing the 25-year-old to a mammoth extension last May. Just months removed from securing a five-year, $265MM deal that includes $181MM in guarantees, Purdy is in no danger of a demotion to clipboard-holding duties. The only question is when he’ll be healthy enough to start again.

The 49ers will go another week without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, who’s continuing to deal with a toe injury. While Purdy was a limited participant in practice this week, the team has ruled him out for Sunday’s game in Houston. Backup Mac Jones will start again in Purdy’s place.

This will be the fourth missed game in a row for Purdy, who has sat out all but two contests this year. He started a Week 1 win over the Seahawks and a Week 4 loss to the Jaguars. Otherwise, the 49ers have turned to Jones, an offseason free agent acquisition who divided his first four years between New England and Jacksonville.

Jones signed a two-year, $7MM deal with the 49ers after reportedly spurning richer offers on the open market. The deal has worked out swimmingly for both sides in 2025.

Jones’ stock has likely risen as the former first-round pick has helped keep the injury-plagued 49ers firmly in the NFC playoff mix. The team is 5-2 and atop the NFC West, leading fellow five-win clubs in the Rams and Seahawks, and currently the second seed in the conference.

The 49ers have gone 4-1 under Jones, who has experienced his most success since helping the Patriots to a 10-7 mark and a playoff berth as a rookie in 2021. The 27-year-old has completed 67% of passes for 1,404 yards, six touchdowns, and four interceptions. Jones has been playing through knee and oblique injuries, but he was a full participant in practice this week.

Although the Texans are off to a dismal 2-4 start, their defense should pose a significant challenge for Jones and the 49ers’ offense. Houston has given up a meager 14.7 points per game, which ranks first in the NFL. The Texans’ stop unit is also fourth in yards allowed and fifth against the pass.

It appears that 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy‘s toe injury will force him to sit out again this week. Purdy did not practice on Thursday, setting up backup Mac Jones to start against the Buccaneers on Sunday, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.

San Francisco is heading into Tampa Bay for a battle of 4-1 NFC contenders, but the 49ers’ success has come despite limited contributions from Purdy. After securing a five-year, $265MM contract extension in May, turf toe has held Purdy out of three games this season. The former Mr. Irrelevant has completed 48 of 73 passes (65.8%) for 586 yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions while winning one of two starts this year. He last played in a loss to the Jaguars in Week 4.

Jones, who joined the 49ers on a two-year, $7MM deal last March, has looked like one of the shrewdest signings of the offseason so far. The ex-Patriots first-round pick and multiyear starter has hit on 86 of 129 passes (66.7%) for 905 yards, six TDs, and a pick while helping the 49ers to a 3-0 record. Jones racked up 342 yards and two scores in a Week 5 victory over the NFC West rival Rams, but he hardly escaped L.A. unscathed.

Now nursing knee and oblique injuries, Jones was a limited participant in practice on Thursday. Although head coach Kyle Shanahan said Jones was unable to throw on Thursday (via Jerry McDonald of the Mercury News), he added that his No. 2 signal-caller “should be able to go on Sunday.”

With Purdy and Jones banged up, Adrian Martinez received reps with the first-team offense on Thursday. He’s in line to back up Jones for the fourth time this year. Previously with the Jets, who cut him in August, Martinez hasn’t seen any regular-season action since he entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent from Kansas State in 2023. The 49ers signed Martinez from their practice squad to their active roster a week ago.

One of the more fascinating QB debuts with a team in recent memory will take place today, with Mac Jones starting for a 49ers team that strongly considered drafting him four years ago. Jones circling back to the 49ers this offseason did not receive tremendous attention, given Brock Purdy‘s unquestioned QB1 status, but it is now quite relevant due to the starter’s injuries.

With Purdy sidelined due to a shoulder injury and a bout with turf toe, Jones is stepping in. Jones joined the 49ers on a two-year, $7MM deal that included $4.75MM guaranteed at signing. This was not believed to be the former first-rounder’s top offer, with The Athletic’s Dianna Russini noting the ex-Patriots and Jaguars passer rejected bigger offers to sign with the Niners.

Jones’ market did not produce connections to other teams before his March 12 San Francisco commitment, but he will follow the Sam Darnold reset path as Purdy’s backup. Darnold played out the 2023 season as the 49ers’ QB2, and the $4.5MM contract worked as a springboard to better opportunities. Jones produced a better pre-San Francisco season than anything Darnold offered, via the 2021 Offensive Rookie of the Year runner-up campaign that led New England to the playoffs, though his steep freefall since that point differs from Darnold’s early-career path.

The Jags acquired Jones from the Pats for just a sixth-round pick and needed him for seven 2024 starts due to Trevor Lawrence injuries. Not particularly impressive (8:8 TD-INT ratio, 6.4 yards per attempt) with a 4-13 team, Jones still commanded the 49ers’ attention. Considering the franchise’s interest in the former national championship-winning Alabama arm four years ago, it was unsurprising to see Kyle Shanahan revisit him via free agency.

Plenty has come out about Shanahan’s Jones interest in 2021, and Russini reaffirms the 49ers’ blockbuster trade-up move (via the Dolphins) came with Jones in mind. Shanahan has said the 49ers were considering Jones and Trey Lance that year; the 49ers’ John Lynch– and Adam Peters-led front office has long been believed to have talked Shanahan out of Jones at No. 3 due to the better value (at the time, at least) Lance brought. Lance never proved a fit in Shanahan’s offense and was sent to Dallas for a fourth-round pick months after the 49ers signed Darnold.

Considering Shanahan’s success with Purdy and Jimmy Garoppolo in San Francisco (and other QBs during his OC stops), it is fairly safe to assume Jones would have been better served by being a 49ers draftee rather than going 15th to the Patriots. Bill Belichick‘s penultimate year as Pats HC involved a bizarre move to install Matt Patricia as the primary offensive play-caller, and Jones — whose Belichick relationship was not exactly strong — could not recapture his rookie-year form under Bill O’Brien in 2023. Jones ended that season on the bench, as the Patriots closed out the Belichick era with Bailey Zappe at the controls.

The 49ers’ trade without a consensus on where to go at No. 3 was always a bit odd, even if the Lawrence-Zach Wilson order atop the draft was well known by the time the team pulled the trigger on a deal that sent two first-rounders and a third to Miami. Jones, 27, now has a chance to craft a midcareer resurgence of sorts. It will be interesting to see how Jones looks given the downward trajectory his career has taken since a promising rookie slate. The 49ers not having George Kittle available will hurt the fifth-year QB’s cause, but the team will have Jauan Jennings after the wideout was questionable with a shoulder injury.

Purdy is not viewed as likely to suit up in Week 3 against the Cardinals, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, even though the recently extended passer “progressed a lot” this week. Indeed, NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport adds the 49ers believe the turf toe injury Purdy is battling is not as significant as first thought. This puts Week 4 (against the Jaguars) in play for a Purdy return. Though, the two- to five-week timetable initially given to the fourth-year starter could certainly point to caution on the 49ers’ part.