All early signs point toward Brock Purdy potentially being ready to suit up for Week 1 of the regular season. Now, nothing is certain. There could be a setback. But right now, things look promising.
The San Francisco 49ers remain hopeful that their injured quarterback might be able to start practicing sometime late in training camp, perhaps as early as mid to late August. If Purdy, who underwent surgery on March 10 to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, isn't ready to start Week 1, Trey Lance or Sam Darnold would get the call.
After investing several top draft picks in acquiring him, San Francisco likely hopes Lance shows enough in training camp to earn the QB2 job. But with a roster built to win now, the choice may not be so simple if Lance doesn't wow his coaches.
"I think if Brock Purdy were unable to take the first snap of training camp, and that's certainly a possibility—he's on a track to play Week 1, but they're still building the strength in his arm back up—I think Sam Donald might take the first snap of training camp," Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer recently told Colin Cowherd. "Now, it doesn't mean Trey Lance can't come back and work his way forward, but I think that they feel like they've already given this guy a lot of chances."
Lance entered last season as the 49ers' starting quarterback. A Week 2 ankle injury ended that. That means the quarterback is entering his third NFL season, having started only four games and losing the job to Purdy, last year's rookie sensation for the Niners.
Lance started only one full season at North Dakota State before San Francisco made him the No. 3 overall pick in 2021.
In March, the 49ers brought in Darnold to compete with Lance for the QB2 spot or, in a worst-case scenario, start Week 1 should Purdy not be healthy.
"The kid (Lance) needs to play, and this is sort of the conundrum they're in," Breer continued. "He just hasn't played a lot of football, period, since high school. He played one full year in college. The COVID year basically canceled his third year in college. He red-shirted as a freshman, and then he goes into the pros, and he's red-shirted his rookie year.
"So we're talking about, now, like a five-year period, if you include last year when he was hurt, where he's only really played one full season of football. So he needs to see snaps. So the ideal thing would be to just throw him out there and live with his mistakes. But that's what the Niners were going to do last year, and that ship has sailed.
"They know how good they are. They know the window they're in. They know they've got one of the most talented rosters in football. And so, at this point, they don't really feel like they can throw a season overboard in the name of Trey Lance's development."
Further complicating Lance's future is Purdy's status with the 49ers. The second-year quarterback has proven the team can win football games with him under center. If Purdy is only unavailable for a handful of weeks, what does that mean for Lance?
"Now you're talking about something different," Breer shared. "You're not talking about developing the best quarterback for the playoffs. You're talking about the guy who can keep you best afloat for a month, right? That would probably be Sam Darnold over Trey Lance at this point, even if Lance has the higher ceiling.
"So I think a lot of different things are going into this, and it makes it much different than last year when the idea was we're going to sink or swim with him, we're going to ride out his bumps in September and October with the hope that we get a better quarterback than we had by the time we get to January."