The 49ers won’t have any firm answers on Brock Purdy’s availability until he goes through his rehab process. That could take right up to the end of August or early September. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport on Tuesday in an appearance with the Pat McAfee Show exuded a lot of confidence about Purdy’s recovery timeline putting him on track to return for the season opener or shortly thereafter.
Rapoport was in lock step with what the 49ers have been saying publicly. Head coach Kyle Shanahan after the second day of OTAs said Purdy would begin throwing in the final days of May or the first couple days of June. That continues to be the case per Rapoport.
“What this means is he now has a three-month time where he’s got to start throwing and then get to a point where he is regularly throwing without issue,” Rapoport said. “This should be right before the start of the season, probably early early September where he should be around 100 percent. This is all very good news.
So if that is the case, if he’s throwing this week – and hopefully he has no setbacks – if this continues to be the case then you are looking at realistically he could maybe start Week 1. Or if not Week 1, pretty shortly thereafter.”
Purdy had an internal brace procedure done to repair the UCL in his right elbow, and the rough timeline given when he had the surgery in March was that he’d be ready right around the start of the season.
While Shanahan is optimistic Purdy could be ready for Week 1, and the QB has stated that’s his intended goal, the team built a deep quarterback room knowing they may need to play some games without the QB who went 7-1 as their starter last season. Rapoport told the Pat McAfee Show the 49ers aren’t in a rush to push Purdy into action despite things going well in his recovery.
“If someone like Sam Darnold, or maybe I guess Trey Lance, if one of those guys starts a week or two, that’s also fine,” Rapoport said. “Because the most important thing for the Niners is that someone who they believe to be a massive, massive part of their future is fully healthy with no issue. … This is probably going about as well as they could’ve hoped after the surgery.”
It’s all a waiting game for now with Purdy and the 49ers quarterback situation, but they appear headed toward having three healthy quarterbacks early in the season. Who starts when matters less if every player is available, and given the team’s need for multiple quarterbacks in each of the last three seasons, having everyone on the depth chart healthy as fast as possible will be vital.
