The San Francisco 49ers are mere days removed from an ugly 31-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.
Said loss came amid the backdrop of star rookie quarterback Brock Purdy suffering an elbow injury in San Francisco’s first drive of the game.
Immediately after the loss, it was noted that the seventh-round pick was dealing with a UCL injury to his throwing elbow. More recently, reports surfaced that it was a full tear of the UCL and could require Tommy John Surgery — potentially sidelining Purdy for a calendar year.
In his season-ending press conference on Wednesday, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan provided an update. He told reporters that it’s believed Purdy will be able to return to 100% and be “the same dude and ready to go” within six months.
Shanahan also touched on the 49ers’ overall quarterback situation after Purdy joined the likes of Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance in suffering serious injuries.
In what can’t be considered too much of a surprise, the head coach indicated that he’s “content” with going into next season relying on Purdy and Lance to be San Francisco’s top-two quarterbacks. In the same breath, Shanahan said he “does not see a scenario” in which impending free agent Jimmy Garoppolo returns to San Francisco.
This is somewhat interesting in that report surfaced recently painting Lance in a less-than-stellar light. Apparently, there’s a lack of confidence within the 49ers’ organization about Lance’s ability to be QB1. This comes less than two full years after San Francisco exhausted a ton of capital to move up for him with the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
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San Francisco 49ers quarterback situation remains unsettled
Despite Shanahan’s comments on Wednesday, we’re pretty sure that San Francisco will be looking for a veteran option. Sure Tom Brady is no longer available after he announced his retirement earlier on Wednesday. But the likes of four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers and Derek Carr could be options.
In particular, relying on Lance could be fool’s gold. He’s thrown all of 102 regular-season passes since San Francisco traded up for him. In fact, the small-school product has thrown all of 117 passes dating back to the end of the 2019 season with North Dakota State.
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Now that Purdy is sidelined to a serious injury, Lance will likely take QB1 reps during the off-season program. As a legitimate Super Bowl contender, relying on someone as inexperienced as Lance to be the starter could be dangerous.
As for Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant from last year’s draft class was brilliant in taking over for an injured Garoppolo back in December. He won seven consecutive starts prior to Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia. The question here is just how Purdy’s timeline will look. This could dictate what the San Francisco 49ers do at quarterback during the offseason.
For now, we’d take Shanahan’s words with a grain of salt.