A year after his brother's death, C.J. Beathard played inspirational football during the San Francisco 49ers' Week 16 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. The quarterback threw for 182 yards and three touchdowns en route to a 20-12 victory and a 125.4 passer rating while playing mostly mistake-free football.

"It means more than I can really put into words," Beathard told reporters after the game. "Everything that I've been through the last year and this being the year anniversary of my brother passing, it's just one of those things that you can't really put it into words other than the fact it's just God. You can't write a script any different. I couldn't have hand-picked this to go the way it did."

Fullback Kyle Juszczyk joined the Pat McAfee Show this week and praised his quarterback's efforts during a win that set back the Cardinals in their hopes of making the playoffs.

"But definitely so happy for C.J. Beathard," Juszczyk said. "I think the guy deserves so much more than what he's gotten in his time here. I think he's extremely talented. He's a great leader. People just gravitate to him. He has a great energy to him."


Saturday was Beathard's first start of the season and first since 2018. While the win was just the second of his career, the quarterback has shown growth in his limited action this year — maybe enough to warrant a return next season. Beathard, like so many of his teammates, is scheduled to become a free agent in March.

"And he played a really solid game this past Saturday," Juszczyk continued. "He was able to go in there, finally with his first week of preparation as a starter and just run an efficient offense. I think he threw three [touchdowns].

"We went out there, we dominated in the run game, so it's not like we had to lean on the passing game too much. But there's a lot to be said about running a Kyle Shanahan offense. It is not as easy as one — well, I don't know if anyone thinks it's easy — but it's not as easy as one might think with just the amount of decisions the quarterback has to make at the line of scrimmage, the ball handling, and just getting in and out of the huddle.

"There's just so much on that guy's plate, and I think C.J. handled it great."


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