San Francisco 49ers’ Colt McCoy hitting the playbook to study up

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Colt McCoy is mostly watching and learning now, soaking in as much as possible in order to be the ideal backup to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

And some of what McCoy is seeing looks familiar.

“It reminds me a lot of when I was a redshirt freshman [at the University of Texas] watching Vince Young do the things that he did,” McCoy said after a practice with rookies and selected veterans this week. “As far as the zone-read and running and athletic ability, it’s off the charts.”

In April, Cleveland traded McCoy and a sixth-round pick to the 49ers in exchange for San Francisco’s picks in the fifth and seventh rounds. It was a pittance for a third-round pick in 2010 who started 21 games for the Browns over three seasons, although there was no future for McCoy in Cleveland, especially after the team drafted Brandon Weeden in the first round and then signed veteran Jason Campbell.

McCoy, 26, said he’s “thankful” to be with a solid franchise that reached the Super Bowl last season. He has spent the better part of four months immersed in the playbook, getting all the help he can from Coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff. He will compete with Scott Tolzien for the backup job.

“One of the hard things is, I’m going into my fourth year — been a starter, been a backup — and I’m going into my fourth offense,” McCoy said. “You don’t ever want to have a pity party, but at the same time it’s required a lot of dedication, a lot of work, a lot of time spent up here because there is a lot of volume. Sometimes it’s a little sticky with other systems that you’ve been in, kind of putting that into here, mixing up words. It’s a whole new deal, in a whole new place.”

McCoy threw for 4,388 yards and 21 touchdowns with the Browns, who were 6-15 with him as the starter.

“I take all the responsibility in the world,” he said. “The bottom line is, we lost games and we never went to the playoffs. In this league, it’s a performance-based league. When you win games, things are good. When you lose games, not so good. So I don’t ever want to spread the blame anywhere. I was part of that, so I assume responsibility.”

He also knows that the backup is one bad snap away from handing off the clipboard, trading a baseball cap for a helmet, and trotting onto the field. That’s especially relevant in high-risk, read-option offenses such as the ones in San Francisco and Washington, where last season, rookie Kirk Cousins had to take over for an injured Robert Griffin III.

Of course, McCoy ultimately wants more than a backup job. He already has tasted more.

“I want to be a starter in this league,” he said. “I know what it’s like, I know what it feels like. I want to do it. My goals, my dreams, all those things are still there. My job this year is to come in and make the 49ers a better team in whatever capacity that is. Right now, it’s the backup role. It’s helping Colin be the best he can be, seeing things, running the [second-team offense] for our defense and giving them good looks. That’s the role that I’m in right now.”

But he was quick to add: “Trust me, I have lots of dreams and lots of goals left in the tank. I’m not ever going to forget those.”

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