San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is coming off an historic rookie season that saw Mr. Irrelevant lead the team to an appearance in the NFC Championship Game.
Unfortunately, the final pick in the 2022 NFL Draft also suffered a serious elbow injury in the aforementioned conference title game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The injury came on San Francisco’s first drive of the game and limited Purdy as his team was blown out by Philadelphia.
Now, several weeks after suffering the injury, Brock Purdy has undergone surgery. According to NFL Media’s Mike Garafolo, said surgery was a success. The NFL insider goes on to note that the Iowa State product should be able to resume throwing in roughly three months.
Purdy had delayed surgery as his elbow was too swollen to safely undergo the procedure. Initially, there was some concern that the youngster would have to undergo a full elbow reconstruction, otherwise known as Tommy John Surgery. Instead, he went with a UCL repair and internal brace.
- Brock Purdy stats (2022): 67.1% completion, 1,374 yards, 14 total TD, 4 INT, 107.3 QB rating
Purdy took over for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo during a December game against the Miami Dolphins. He proceeded to lead San Francisco to five consecutive wins to close out the regular season.
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The young quarterback then threw for 332 yards with four total touchdowns in an NFC Wild Card win over the Seattle Seahawks before leading San Francisco to a win over the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round.
Based on the timeline for Purdy to return to throwing, there’s a chance that he will be ready for training camp. Previously, his timeline for return extended into the start of the regular season.
For San Francisco, this Brock Purdy news has to be considered a positive. The aforementioned Garoppolo is slated to hit free agency next week and will not return to the club. The No. 2 pick back in 2021, Trey Lance was injured in the second game of the 2022 season. There’s some concern that the greenish quarterback is not QB1 material.
Even with this relatively good news, the expectation is that San Francisco will add a veteran quarterback to the mix. A certain former NFL MVP has been bandied about a whole heck of a lot.