The Legendary 49ers Quarterback Lineage: The Past, Present, and Future...
In the history of Pro Football, few teams have had as much success at the quarterback position than the San Francisco 49ers. Boasting countless Pro bowls, All Pros, League MVPs, and even three members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the 49ers have a rich tradition of elite quarterback play. Over the years, the quarterback position has gone from a pillar of success, to a position of weakness. As the 20th century ended, the 21st century has brought the 49ers much quarterback futility.
To truly understand the history of the 49ers quarterback tradition, we must start at the beginning with the undersized, but athletically gifted Frankie Albert. The Stanford product was the first quarterback in 49ers history in the old All-American Football Conference in 1946. He would eventually be named the co-MVP of the league in 1948. The left hander was known for running the bootleg, where he would fake the hand off and run out of the pocket with the ball hidden at his back hip towards the sideline. He would lead the 49ers for seven years and eventually lead them as the head coach in 1956. His quarterback is next in the 49ers quarterback lineage.
Remembered more for his late career heroics with the New York Giants, Y.A. Tittle spent a decade as the 49ers signal caller. He was the quarterback of the legendary Million Dollar back field and was named the UPI NFL player of the year in 1957. Four of his 7 Pro Bowl nods were also with San Francisco. He would eventually be traded in a now legendary lopsided trade to the New York Giants and replaced by our next signal caller.
John Brodie was another product of nearby Stanford. He spent a team record 17 seasons with the 49ers, beginning in 1957. His career numbers in yards and touchdowns are second in team history behind only the incomparable Joe Montana. He was the leader of a lot of lousy teams before finally going to back to back NFC Championship games after the 1970 and 1971 seasons, where he would fall short to the Dallas Cowboys, much like a quarterback later on this list. Brodie was named League MVP in 1970. After his retirement fallowing the 1973 season, the 49ers would suffer mightily, both as a team and at the quarterback position, until the end of the decade, when the 49ers drafted an undersized quarterback in the third round of the 1979 NFL Draft, who would go on to become an NFL legend.
Joe Montana would eventually become a four-time Super Bowl champion, winning Super Bowl MVP in three of those masterpiece performances. He would win Two League MVP awards and was an eight-time Pro Bowler. Many debates of who is the greatest quarterback of all time, begin and end with him at number one. Coming out of Notre Dame though, he was said to be too small and have too weak an arm to be a successful NFL quarterback. His quick feet and pin point accuracy made him the prototype for the west coast offense of Bill Walsh. He would eventually be replaced by the last quarterback of the great 49ers quarterback lineage.
Steve Young had the incredibly daunting task of replacing an all-time great in Joe Montana. He would start out as a glorified running back, and eventually become one of the most accurate passers in NFL history. If not for the Dallas Cowboys dynasty of the 90s, Steve Young and the 49ers could have had two decades at the top of the NFL. After falling to the Cowboys in the NFC Championship for two straight years, the two-time League MVP lead the 49ers to sweet revenge over the Cowboys after the 1994 season, where he would eventually go on to have an MVP performance in Super Bowl XXIX. After being forced to retire fallowing the 1999 season due to concussions, the 49ers quarterback lineage of greatness would end.
The 21st century saw the rise of the passing game in the NFL. Every year teams move farther away from the run game and becomes more and more quarterback driven. Despite small windows of greatness from Jeff Garcia and Colin Kaepernick, the 49ers have gone through the early part of this century without a true franchise quarterback. With Kaepernick almost certainly gone, the 49ers find themselves without a quarterback on the roster. With a number of options heading into the 2017 season, can the 49ers add to their rich quarterback history and find their guy for the future?
