Questions are going to linger over the 49ers’ QB situation until Brock Purdy is healthy. The debate can rage about who should be the starting QB, but it appears the decision makers with San Francisco have a specific route in mind. MMQB’s Albert Breer on Monday published a column with a handful of his takeaways from NFL owners’ meetings. Among those takeaways was a clear-eyed view of the 49ers’ QB situation.
For Breer there’s no smoke and mirrors or public lies from general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan. Purdy is the starter unless one of Trey Lance or Sam Darnold blow the coaching staff away in offseason workouts and training camp. Via Breer:
The Niners are working with a six-to-eight-month return-to-play timetable on Purdy, with the idea being that the timeline should be more concrete two to three months post-op (Purdy’s surgery was March 10). That means by the summer break, San Francisco should know if it’s getting Purdy back for opening day, at some point midseason or somewhere in between.
What the Niners know for certain now is that the on-field reps through spring will go to Lance and Darnold. They’re hoping Lance will turn a corner, but, with the roster they have, and the presence of Purdy, they can no longer sacrifice in-season reps to facilitate his development—as they’d planned last year. Meanwhile, there’s some hope that Darnold, seen as a strong system fit, could turn a corner. As a rookie, Darnold played for Mike Shanahan protégé Jeremy Bates and had his best year in a scheme built to make the QB play fast.
Either way, one of those guys will really have to come on to move the Niners off Purdy, which should be taken as good news by the fan base.
This is in line with how Lynch and Shanahan presented things publicly. They’re still excited about Lance and Darnold, but Purdy’s sample size was enough to give him the edge as the team’s starting QB. His injury opens the door for additional reps for Lance and Darnold.
Ultimately no decisions will be made until the team sees how long Purdy will be out and how the other two signal callers fare in his absence.
Breer’s final point is a good one though that’s gotten lost in some of the discourse. The 49ers aren’t in a bad spot QB-wise. Purdy played extremely well as a rookie, and the team is ready to bank on some level of improvement from him in Year 2 that would make him the best QB Shanahan has had.
Their backup plan is two physically gifted QBs (Lance and Darnold) duking it out for the QB2 job, leaving the 49ers in a good place should Purdy regress, get hurt, or need time to return from offseason elbow surgery. QB availability has been a problem for the 49ers under Shanahan, and now they’re in a place where they have three QBs who they believe can win games for them.
