After San Francisco defeated the Atlanta Falcons 20-10 on Sunday night, 49ers quarterback Mac Jones said running back Christian McCaffrey “definitely owes me some money.”

“He fell down on those passes at, like, the 2-yard line,” Jones said. “So he wanted to run them in. But, no, he did a great job. He’s an awesome, awesome competitor. Just does his job on every play. And that’s what you want.”

McCaffrey ran for two touchdowns in the game. Before the first, the running back took a pass from Jones 13 yards to the Atlanta 1-yard line. Before the second, McCaffrey took a pass from Jones 17 yards to the Falcons 4.

McCaffrey doesn’t really owe Jones any money, but the 49ers do.

The former Alabama quarterback signed a two-year, $8.41 million contract with the 49ers in March. San Francisco added Jones to back up Brock Purdy. But a toe injury has sidelined Purdy for five of the 49ers’ seven games.

Sunday night’s game was Jones’ fifth start of the 2025 season, and the fourth contest that the 49ers have won with him in the lineup.

His contract includes a clause that pays Jones $400,000 if San Francisco wins four games in which he plays at least 25 percent of the 49ers’ offensive snaps. Jones has taken every offensive snap in his five games.

For the rest of the reason, Jones gets a $100,000 bonus for every San Francisco victory in which he plays one-quarter of the snaps. And that doesn’t include a $20,000 bonus for every game in which he plays.

Jones also has a contract clause that will pay him $550,000 if he plays 50 percent of the regular-season snaps and the 49ers make the playoffs. So far, Jones has played 358 snaps and Purdy has played 142.

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But Jones’ run may be nearing an end. Purdy practiced on a limited basis last week.

On Friday, San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan said Purdy’s progress “was definitely a step further ahead than it was last week, so going in the right direction.”

“If Brock’s good to go, I picture him starting,” Shanahan said.

Jones has made no waves about holding on to the starting spot when Purdy’s ready to play.

“It’s meant a lot,” Jones said of the team’s support during his run in the lineup. “I mean, I think everybody on this team has had my back, and Brock included. And it’s just been so fun to work with Brock and everybody in the quarterback room.

“So I’ve been fortunate to have some wins here, and we have been fortunate to have some wins. And that’s important. Every win counts early in the year, and all you’re trying to do is get to that number so you can get in the playoffs. But you’ve got a long way to go there. And we’re just taking it one week at a time. And my goal is to be prepared whatever role I’m in. And I’m just looking forward to the challenge next week.”

While Purdy has been out of the lineup with an injury, Jones has been in it with injuries to his knee and oblique. In last week’s 30-19 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Jones compared throwing to pulling a scab off.

Jones hardly practiced for that game. For Sunday night’s contest, he had two full days of practice.

“I definitely felt better,” Jones said. “I still feel like there’s some limitations, to be honest. But I’m working through it. And I felt a lot better this week, and just being able to practice meant a lot to my confidence and all that stuff. And that’s when you can work on things, too, and get back in shape and all that. So I just hadn’t practiced a lot prior to this week, so I’m glad to be back out there. …

“I’ve played with a lot of tough players and watched a lot of tough quarterbacks play in front of me, whether that was in college or whatever, and just learned it. I think it rubs off on the team, and I feel like if you’re able to play and you can protect yourself, you should be out there. So that’s what it’s all about, and those guys are getting hit every play. So, they have it much worse than I do, and they did a good job this evening keeping me upright. I mean, the only big hit I took was when I had to tackle the guy on the interception. So, other than that, I feel good. Like, it is definitely part of my DNA.”

In the previous two games, Jones threw for 689 yards – 342 in a 26-23 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Rams on Oct. 2 and 347 against Tampa Bay. On Sunday night, Jones completed 17-of-26 passes for 152 passes with no touchdowns and one interception against Atlanta.

Instead, the 49ers leaned heavily on McCaffrey, who had 129 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries and seven receptions for 72 yards versus the Falcons.

“We thought we had to win that game a certain way,” Shanahan said at his postgame press conference. “Even last night, talking about how we felt we needed to run the ball, definitely. I challenged the team, saying I’d like to get 40 runs called. But that’s not just an offensive thing. In order to do that, you’ve got to play defense like we did tonight. You’ve got to play special teams like we did tonight.”

In their next game, the 49ers play the Houston Texans at noon Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston.

On Monday, Shanahan said Purdy will be evaluated this week, but it might be a “reach” to say he’ll be ready to play against Houston.

“Hey, Mac’s a real good quarterback,” Shanahan said after Sunday night’s game. “We’ve thought that before he got here, and we’ve thought that since the day he got here. He’s been great in the offseason, great this year in training camp. And you guys have seen how good he’s been in these games. So I feel very fortunate to have Mac.”

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