49ers starting quarterbacks since they last won a Super Bowl, ranked

For a stretch from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, 49ers starting quarterbacks could do no wrong. Joe Montana was the headliner of a group that ranged from above-average (Elvis Grbac, Jeff Garcia) to legendary (Steve Young).

But Young’s six-touchdown Super Bowl performance following the 1994 season began a slow slide from NFL royalty to a spot among the league’s also-rans. since 1995, 21 different starters have come and gone. None were able to stem what’s become a 25-year Lombardi Trophy drought — though Colin Kaepernick nearly rode a Superdome blackout to a title in 2013. Jimmy Garoppolo can end that streak by leading the club to victory in Super Bowl 54.

Who among them wore the crimson and gold the proudest? That’s what I set out to find by ranking every quarterback who has started at least one game for San Francisco since that Super Bowl win.

These rankings, which are entirely subjective, are based on overall impact, team success, and individual success. And if you’re wondering how this all broke down for the Chiefs, who wound up employing a whole bunch of former 49ers quarterbacks, you can see that ranking here.

With that said, here’s San Francisco’s post-Super Bowl XXIX quarterback rankings, split into seven different categories.

Druckenmiller wasn’t supposed to be a backup; he was the 26th pick of the 1997 NFL Draft. He played in just six career NFL games and made one start thanks to a minor injury to entrenched quarterback Young.

In Week 2 of his rookie season, he needed 28 passes to throw for 102 yards. He completed just 35.7 percent of those attempts and threw three interceptions against one touchdown pass to somehow still beat the Rams, 15-12. He was replaced by a returning Young the very next week and would throw 24 more passes in his NFL career. Druckenmiller was out of the league by the year 2000, though he’d go on to a starring role with the XFL’s Memphis Maniax in 2001.

Pickett was, statistically, the worst 49ers QB since Bev Wallace in 1949. He made two starts for the Niners in 2005, including an epic 1-of-13, one-interception performance in a loss to the Bears. But he was also taken in the seventh round of the 2004 NFL Draft and carried zero expectations with his name, so he’s still better than Druckenmiller.

Stenstrom started three games for the Niners, who scored 16 total points under his guidance. Dilfer was brought in to mentor top overall pick Alex Smith in 2006, then forced into action for a bad Niners team at age 35 and compiled a 7:12 TD:INT ratio in just seven appearances.

Dorsey threw for significantly fewer yards per attempt as a pro (5.1) than Raheem Mostert has rushed for as a 49er (6.0). Hoyer was signed in 2017 to warm the throne for the team’s quarterback of the future ...who initially turned out to be C.J. Beathard. The former Patriot went 0-6 before getting replaced by the third-round rookie from Iowa, which went about as well as you’d expect. The good news was this convinced general manager John Lynch his situation was hopeless enough to necessitate a midseason trade for Jimmy Garoppolo.

Detmer and Weinke were former Heisman Trophy winners who were in their 30s and firmly in the “journeyman backup” phases of their careers. Fellow Heisman speech-giver Smith was only 26 when he came to San Francisco for one final NFL season, but he belongs right in that Weinke-Detmer range — at least spiritually.

Dilfer’s retirement and Alex Smith’s season-ending shoulder injury meant the Niners played most of the 2008 season with O’Sullivan, Hill, and Jamie Martin on their QB depth chart. O’Sullivan, signed away from the Lions — which is never a good sign — started the first eight games of his career that fall after beating out a then-healthy Smith for the starting role in the preseason. He threw for 510 yards and three touchdowns in Weeks 2 and 3 to get San Francisco out to a 2-1 start, then quickly melted into a pile of guts as if the Ark of the Covenant had been opened in front of him.

Hill stepped into the smoking crater O’Sullivan left behind and overdelivered, leading the Niners to a 5-3 finish and 7-9 record that matched the team’s high-water mark since 2003. He’d finish his San Francisco career with a non-losing record in all three of the seasons he spent with the team, which is a borderline miracle given the state of the franchise.

Beathard was a flier third-round pick who threw for 139 yards per game in college. He’s been slightly more prolific as a pro, but is also 1-9 as a starter and failed to show enough to convince Niners brass not to trade for Garoppolo (though he can still earn a Super Bowl ring as a member of the 2019 squad). Gabbert redeemed some of his value after leaving Jacksonville as a first-round bust, though was never more than forgettable in three years and 13 starts as a 49er.

Rattay went from seventh-round pick to starter after the team released Jeff Garcia. He wasn’t especially good, but he once rallied San Francisco back from a 28-12 deficit with five minutes to play, so ninth place it is. If you want to make the argument someone like Dorsey or Smith belongs in this tier, I’d be willing to listen to it. The main thing we all need to realize is that these guys were all just different shades of bad.

I’m overrating the hell out of Mullens here based on a small sample size, but he was good enough as a second-year revelation that he deserves separation from the Beathards and Dorseys of the San Francisco universe. He set a franchise record by being the only 49ers quarterback to throw for multiple touchdowns in his team debut — even if the Raiders didn’t exactly make it hard on him.

In limited snaps, Mullens has averaged a shade under 285 passing yards per start. His 8.3 yards per attempt in 2018 ranked fifth among all qualified starting quarterbacks and was more efficient than players like Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Russell Wilson. If nothing else, he’s a high-value backup on an absolute bargain of a contract and a valuable insurance policy for the 2019 Niners.

Mullens could make his name as a sometimes-starter in the Bay Area and then thrive as a building block for another QB-hungry team. That’s what Grbac did.

Grbac made nine starts in three seasons as Steve Young’s backup before the Chiefs made him their Joe Montana Steve Bono replacement (Kansas City really, really likes 49ers QBs). It’s easy to see why they settled on the San Francisco product. He completed more than 65 percent of his passes filling in for Young, and his 8.0 yards per pass in 1995 was second-best in the NFL among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts. While he was buoyed by a pocket-clearing offensive line and a receiving corps led by a still-prime Jerry Rice, his starting stints in Kansas City (and later, Baltimore) proved he was an above-average 1990s quarterback.

Taken as a whole, Smith’s 49ers career was ... underwhelming.

But Smith’s time in San Francisco was a story of triumph. The former Utah star seemed destined to go down as one of the biggest busts in league history after starting his career with 31 interceptions, a 63.5 passer rating, and a putrid 4.6 adjusted yards per pass in his first 32 games. A season-ending shoulder injury in his fourth year, which came weeks after losing his starting job to J.T. by-god O’Sullivan, seemed to seal his fate as one of the worst draft picks to ever grace the modern NFL.

Then Smith turned things around, albeit slowly at first. He went 8-12 in his first two post-injury seasons. He finally played up his his draft position in his seventh and eighth years in the league. His final two seasons in San Francisco saw him go 19-5-1 as a starter while recording a 30:10 TD:INT ratio — all despite playing behind an offensive line that got him sacked on nearly 10 percent of his dropbacks. His sudden competence snapped an eight-year playoff drought and pushed the 49ers to the NFC title game in 2011.

That wasn’t enough to hold off Colin Kaepernick’s rise to the team’s starting role, but it made him valuable enough to fetch a second-round pick via trade in 2013.

Statistically, Garcia and Kaepernick are pretty evenly matched:

Garcia took bigger risks downfield, while Kaepernick was more cautious with the ball. Garcia was the better big-number passer, but Kaepernick backfilled those gaps with his ability to run the ball. Both were Pro Bowl-caliber quarterbacks who were sometimes bad, mostly good, and occasionally great.

The dividing line between the two is postseason success. Garcia went 1-2 in the playoffs with five interceptions and a passer rating roughly 15 points below his regular season average. His Niners never advanced beyond the Divisional Round.

Kaepernick, on the other hand, went 4-2 in his two postseason appearances, scoring 11 touchdowns (seven passing, four rushing) and leading the Niners to two NFC title games and one Super Bowl. He threw for 229 yards per game in the playoffs and ran for 84.5 more. His 264 rushing yards in a single postseason are the most by a quarterback in NFL history. Those are outstanding numbers and enough to give him the edge over Garcia.

Garoppolo can cement his place in the penultimate spot on this list by toppling the Chiefs in Super Bowl 54. While he’s been blessed with possibly the most talented supporting cast of anyone on this list but Young, he’s also capable of turning around even an awful 49ers team. San Francisco was 1-10 under Hoyer and Beathard in 2017 before Kyle Shanahan promoted his newly acquired QB to the starting role. The former Patriot showed out with five straight wins, including over the playoff-bound Titans, Jaguars, and Rams.

He’s only got one full season of starting experience under his belt, but Garoppolo has proven he can lead San Francisco to an NFC championship. His 99.2 passer rating and 67.6 completion rate are both tops among Niners quarterbacks over the past 25 years. His four fourth-quarter comebacks in 2019 led the league.

He’s still got plenty of room to fall down these rankings (and not much room to move up), but his first three seasons in the Bay Area have been outstanding so far — at least when he’s been healthy enough to take the field.

Young remained extremely good at football even as the Niners faded around him. His post-Super Bowl XXIX run saw him lead San Francisco to the playoffs in each season except for his injury-marred 1999 finale. The dual-threat quarterback made it to the Pro Bowl each season he started at least 11 games for the 49ers and led the league in passer rating six times — including twice after destroying the Chargers for his third NFL title.

But, most importantly ...

Cameo roles on hit NBC sitcom Wings —

Steve Young: 1
every other 49er QB, ever: 0

Also, he’s a Hall of Famer.