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Sam Darnold signed a one-year deal with the 49ers despite knowing the team already employed Brock Purdy and Trey Lance. It was a homecoming of sorts as the quarterback graduated from San Clemente High School in Orange County and played college football at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
The 49ers’ success, too, was a draw.
In three seasons with the Jets and two more with the Panthers, Darnold never played on a winning team. The 49ers have won at least 10 games three of the past four seasons.
Darnold also could not pass on a chance to play in Kyle Shanahan’s offense with the team’s weapons.
“Guys are open
. I mean, there’s a lot of guys open on dang near every play,” Darnold said on Pardon My Take, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “It just seems like there’s a ton of answers [to why he chose the 49ers]. Great run game. I mean, whenever you can have a great run game as a quarterback, that’s always a comforting feeling.
“And I think, just with the certain weapons that they have, Deebo [Samuel], [Brandon] Aiyuk, George [Kittle], obviously Christian [McCaffrey], [Kyle Juszczyk], Jauan Jennings. There’s so many guys. You can go on and on. But they’ve been there for so long, and Kyle’s been able to understand what everyone does well, what they don’t do well. And I feel like every game plan, he uses and gets the most out of his guys, and that’s a very good feeling as a quarterback, knowing that the coordinator is going to put everyone in the best position possible.”
Darnold has started 55 games since the Jets made him the No. 3 overall pick in 2018, which is more games than the other quarterbacks on the roster combined have started by a lot.