It’s a quote so surprising, it makes you wonder if he misspoke.
In an interview with Yahoo Sports that dropped last week, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy seemed to indicate that all is going well with his recovery from elbow surgery. Purdy is no longer wearing the external brace on his right arm, an early positive development.
However, despite that minor milestone, Purdy seems to believe that nothing is certain in the immediate future.
Purdy said in the piece that he’s “not really sure, honestly” if he’ll play in 2023, a somewhat shocking statement considering Purdy avoided a more extreme procedure on his ulnar collateral ligament that would have kept him out for most of the year.
The longest timeline up to this point has been head coach Kyle Shanahan saying that Purdy could be on the shelf as long as until Week 4. There hasn’t been any talk up until now that Purdy not returning this season is considered a possibility.
“Just to be able to get out of the brace, move around more frequently and stuff like that — I know it sounds small, but that’s a big win,” Purdy said more optimistically in the piece. “That’s how I look at it: Finding little things like that to be positive about and understand you have what it takes to get back to being yourself on the field.”
Regardless, it seems a certainty that either Trey Lance or Sam Darnold will begin the season as the 49ers’ starting quarterback. If you are listening to Purdy, how long that lasts is apparently more up in the air than previously believed.
“We’re all working to get me back as soon as possible but in the right manner,” Purdy concluded. “I’ve just got to take it one day at a time, get healthy, start throwing again and things like that. And then just go from there. But it’s all going to work out how it needs to.”
