The San Francisco 49ers have quite an interesting quarterback room. All signs point to Brock Purdy being relevant when it comes to Week 1.
It's a franchise that has been to the NFC Championship Game in three of the past four years, reaching Super Bowl LIV in 2019. This past season, the San Francisco 49ers came within one victory of an eighth Super Sunday appearance for the franchise and did so with three different starting quarterbacks and a fourth playing in the conference title game.
Trey Lance started 2022 for Kyle Shanahan's club. He went down early in a Week 2 win over Seattle and never returned. Jimmy Garoppolo took over and made 10 starts before being injured in a Week 12 win over the Dolphins.
Enter Brock Purdy, the final pick in the '22 draft. He guided the club the rest of the way before suffering an elbow injury at Philadelphia in the NFC title game. Josh Johnson would make a brief appearance in the 31-7 loss.
49ers: Brock Purdy is on the mend
Now it's 2023. Lance is still with the club, Garoppolo is a member of the Raiders and Johnson is a member of the Baltimore Ravens. General manager John Lynch signed Sam Darnold and Brandon Allen.
As the defending NFC West champions prepare for the season, any concerns about who will be the opening week starter are quickly disappearing.
"It seems like there's been no blips," said KNBR-680s Matt Maiocco said late last week on the station's Murph & Mac Show. "Everything seems to be working toward September 10 at the Pittsburgh Steelers."
A full training camp may be a different story. There are still questions to be answered in terms of when he will be available to take the field.
"But everything I've heard is that the progress and the (physical therapy), all that is right on pace, that there's been no setbacks," added Maiocco. "And it's not necessarily all systems go. That'll come a little bit later. But as I understand it, they're very happy with where he is in his recovery from that surgery."
It's a saga that bears watching, to say the least.
