The San Francisco 49ers will be without quarterback Brock Purdy this Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mac Jones is officially questionable, although head coach Kyle Shanahan made it sound like
Jones would start.
Here’s what Shanahan said when asked if he’d made up his mind about Sunday’s starter: “I pretty much already have, but you’ve got to put it that way, if there’s any doubt at all.”
Rookie seventh-round quarterback Kurtis Rourke is getting close to returning to practice, according to Shanahan: “We should open his window soon. It’s getting real close to it. Probably a few weeks away. It can be anywhere from next week to a few weeks. But he’s close, he’s moving good. It’ll be soon.”
Rourke is recovering from a torn ACL in his right knee. It would be borderline malpractice to expect Rourke to contribute under these circumstances, given all the time he’s missed. It will take more than three weeks of seeing an NFL defense during practice to determine whether Rourke can contribute in this league.
Here’s Shanahan on how the team plans to handle Rourke:
I think that’s a lot. I think he’ll look when he’s ready to go in those three weeks. Someone who has missed all of the offseason and everything, that would be tough to call ‘him next man up’ or any situation like that. So that’s why he probably could’ve gone this week, especially with us being down a quarterback and everything. We’d like to wait until he’s fully healthy. We’re not going to put him up for that reason.
So we’ll see how these three weeks go, and if it makes sense on our roster, and you can do that, we’ll do it. And if not, we’ll shut him down.
Under normal circumstances, 2025 would be an automatic redshirt year for Rourke. He’d have time to fully grasp the playbook, play scout team quarterback, all while getting valuable practice reps. There’d be no pressure to accelerate his learning curve.
Welcome to the 49ers, Kurtis. The word “normal” does not exist in these parts.
A toe injury to Brock Purdy means the Niners are in a position nobody in the league wants to be in: Where the third-string quarterback actually matters.
Shanahan was a TV timeout away from finding out if Adrian Martinez could throw in a meaningful game. This week, Shanahan said Martinez took more reps with the first team, so the team had the chance to evaluate him running the offense as opposed to running scout team cards, where the cards tell you who to throw the ball to before you leave the huddle.
Shanahan said, to a degree, he has a package of plays in his head about what he’d potentially have to run for Martinez. And a better feeling about Martinez than he had in the past few weeks.
Coincidentally, after seeing Martinez practice for a week, the 49ers worked out three quarterbacks. Desmond Ridder, Nathan Peterman, and Quinten Dormady. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero said the team didn’t immediately sign any of them. So, for at least another week, Martinez will back up Jones.
