NCC quarterback Broc Rutter had arguably the greatest career in DIII history. Rutter shattered records, won the Gagliardi Trophy, and capped his career by winning the national championship in 2019. Rutter went undrafted in the 2020 NFL Draft and ended up signing with the San Francisco 49ers.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 in June 2020, the NFL decided to make some changes that affected how teams could operate in the offseason. Teams cut their training camp roster from 90 to 80 and all preseason games were canceled.
Rutter was one of many players affected by the new rule changes. He ended up being waived by the 49ers and became an unrestricted free agent on July 29. No other team ended up signing Rutter, so he returned to NCC for the fall semester to finish his marketing degree.
The 49ers are having a quarterback issue as starter Jimmy Garoppolo will miss six weeks with a high ankle sprain. Backup quarterback Nick Mullens has started two games for the 49ers but has a 1-1 record with one touchdown and three turnovers.
Third-string quarterback C. J. Beathard came into relief for Mullens on Oct. 4, but he didn’t do much as he passed for 138 yards. In Garoppolo’s first game back from his first injury on Oct. 11, he threw 7-for-17, 77 yards and threw two interceptions against the Miami Dolphins.
After that horrendous game, Garoppolo bounced back against the Rams on Oct. 18 and Patriots on Oct. 25 with a combined 545 yards and three touchdowns. On Nov. 3 Garoppolo finished with 11-of-16 for 84 yards and one interception before leaving from an injury.
At NCC, from 2016–2019, Rutter has set career records in pass completions (1,016), pass attempts (1,503), yards per pass (9.5), passing yards per game (279.7), pass completion percentage (67.6%) and passing touchdowns (145). Then, he set the NCAA record in career passing yards at 14,265.
Rutter has written his name in the season record books so many times that you can see each of his four individual seasons in the top 10 in the majority of the categories. The same can be said about the single-game record books as Rutter owns the top spot or has tied his own career-high multiple times. The 49ers need to take another look at Rutter and sign him to the roster as a backup quarterback to Garoppolo.
It’s hard to argue that Garoppolo should be replaced by Rutter because of experience and how much the 49ers invested. Financially, it’s hard to replace Garoppolo as the 49ers paid their quarterback $137 million for five years back in 2018.
Rutter deserves to be backing up Garoppolo as the others have failed to show they can be a solid option. Mullens and Beathard aren’t capable to replace Garoppolo if the starting quarterback misses time.
In his final season at NCC, Rutter has earned the honors of being selected to the AFCA All-American Second Team, All-CCIW First Team, D3football.com All-North Region First Team, D3football.com First Team All-American, and the Associated Press First Team All-American. Rutter has earned the CCIW Offensive Player of the Year and the North Region Offensive Player of the Year.
Rutter has shown that he can take care of the football. In Rutter’s four–year career with the Cardinals, he threw 21 interceptions through 51 games. Rutter averaged 5.25 interceptions per season, 0.41 interceptions per game and the touchdown–to–interception ratio was 6.9-to-1, which means Rutter was throwing close to seven touchdowns before he threw an interception.
In this season for the 49ers, their quarterbacks are throwing 1.5 touchdowns before they throw an interception. Garoppolo has been careless with the ball as he has a 1.4-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. However, the quarterbacks behind Garoppolo are throwing one touchdown for each interception.
Beathard is in the last year of his four-year contract signed in 2017, but he hasn’t shown to win the back-up job to Garoppolo. If the 49ers were to trust Beathard, they would have made him the starter over Mullens when Garoppolo was out. Nonetheless, both players haven’t proved to be a capable backup and are in the last year of their contracts.
Rutter has led the Cardinals to a national championship, won numerous awards and has the stats for the records book. Also, Rutter has the talent that belongs in the NFL but needs time in 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s system.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rutter never had the opportunity to showcase his talents in a 49ers practice. With the struggles of the 49ers backup quarterbacks, it seems right that the 49ers look into one of the NCAA’s most prolific quarterbacks as Rutter is still a free agent on the market.
2 Comments
You will not find a qb who can make football decision any faster than Broc. I was on the staff at NC his first two years. He really is a one in a million guy. I am positive that if Broc gets a chance to show what he can do, he will be compared to Drew Brees down the road. Oh and by the way, he is a better person than he is a football player!
Nah