Pelissero: 49ers’ Brock Purdy starting Week 1 may come down to this one factor

NFL Media insider Tom Pelissero created a little buzz on Monday, reporting that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was headed to Jacksonville for the next phase in his rehab and ramp-up to returning to the football field. Of course, this was expected. In May, Purdy said he would spend part of the summer break in Jacksonville, working with quarterback coach Will Hewlett and ortho specialist Tom Gormely.

"I want to just make sure my mechanics and everything are right," Purdy said last month. "So, I'll go down, work with them for a couple of weeks, and then get back here."

Pelissero's update indicates everything is going as planned in Purdy's recovery. The quarterback appears to be ahead of schedule. On March 10, he underwent surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, which was estimated to be followed by six months of recovery.

The 49ers are optimistic that Purdy might return to practice sometime during the second half of August. That would be in time for the quarterback to catch the tail end of training camp and perhaps be ready for Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Assuming there are no setbacks, the chances of Purdy leading his teammates on the field at Acrisure Stadium depend on one thing.

"Everything is trending right now, Rich, toward Brock Purdy being ready for the regular season," Pelissero told Rich Eisen on Tuesday. "The question is just going to become how comfortable are the 49ers with putting him out there? And that's going to depend, in part, on how he looks through the course of training camp and how much he can handle.

"He started throwing roughly a month ago, and he's been ramping it up since. He just got out to Jacksonville to work with Will Hewlett and Tom Gormely yesterday, and those guys, they worked with Brock before the draft."



Pelissero reports that everything Purdy has been doing since he started throwing late last month indicates that the 49ers are optimistic that their second-year quarterback has a good chance to start Week 1. The team would not have had him go through throwing sessions if he was not yet ready.

Purdy was last season's surprise rookie, entering the game in Week 13 against the Miami Dolphins due to injuries and helping the 49ers reel off eight consecutive wins (including two playoff games) as part of their 12-game win streak.

"He played at a really, really high level on a 49ers team that doesn't entirely have to rely upon the quarterback to carry them," Pelissero said. "As Kyle Shanahan said recently, talking about the quarterback room with Sam Darnold and Trey Lance, they like all those guys. But there's one guy who they know can do it, and that's Brock Purdy.

"Mr. Irrelevant, who made himself very relevant by playing down the stretch after the injuries last season, performing at a really high level and putting himself in a position where, if he's healthy and if the 49ers are comfortable from a medical perspective, I absolutely expect him to be the Week 1 starter."