A day after general manager John Lynch expressed optimism that quarterback Brock Purdy could return for training camp, head coach Kyle Shanahan dumped some cold water on the idea and offered a potentially longer return timeline.
Purdy tore his UCL in the 49ers’ NFC championship game loss in Philadelphia and had it surgically repaired in early March. The original timeline was that Purdy would be throwing in three months and ready to play in six. That specific track would have him in line to play by Week 1 or 2. Shanahan at the NFL owners’ meetings pumped the brakes on that timeline.
“We’ll see in three months,” Shanahan said via the Bay Area News Group. “He could be ready for camp (in late July) or not, and we possibly say, ‘Hey it’s going a little slow, it might be Week 1 or as late as Week 4,’ but it’s all just estimations. We’ll see what happens.”
It isn’t a surprise the 49ers are moving with extreme caution given their track record with QB injuries. Shanahan said the potential for Purdy to be out for eight months and miss multiple weeks was why they added QB Sam Darnold in free agency.
San Francisco’s roster is too good to overlook the harm an injury or two under center can do. It appears Shanahan is ready to let Purdy’s injury situation play out as long as it needs to, and he sounds comfortable with his QB room in the meantime.
With Purdy recovering and his timeline up in the air, Shanahan is focusing instead on Lance and Darnold to see if one of that pair can push for the starting job Purdy holds going into the offseason.
There’s a QB battle playing out one way or another, but the longer-term impact of the Lance-Darnold competition will depend on where Purdy’s return to play timeline finally lands.
