Insider reveals timetable for recovery of 49ers' Brock Purdy

It appears the San Francisco 49ers believe they know when they'll be able to say if quarterback Brock Purdy will be ready for Week 1 of this coming season.

For a piece published on Monday, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated wrote that "the Niners are working with a six-to-eight-month return-to-play timetable on Purdy, with the idea being that the timeline should be more concrete two to three months post-op (Purdy’s surgery was March 10). That means by the summer break, San Francisco should know if it’s getting Purdy back for opening day, at some point midseason or somewhere in between." 

Purdy suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow during the NFC Championship Game loss at the Philadelphia Eagles and had his procedure postponed until March due to inflammation in the elbow. Last week, 49ers general manager John Lynch confirmed that Purdy is "probably the leader in the clubhouse" to be San Francisco's starter over 2021 first-round draft pick Trey Lance and free-agency acquisition Sam Darnold, but that was before head coach Kyle Shanahan hinted that Purdy may not be cleared to face live defenses before Week 4 of the 2023 season at the earliest. 

Since Shanahan's comments on the situation, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network and NFL Network personality David Carr have both suggested Darnold could begin September atop the depth chart ahead of Lance. Lynch indicated that trading Lance won't be on the table at any point this year even if he loses a competition to Darnold. 

"Meanwhile, there’s some hope that Darnold, seen as a strong system fit, could turn a corner," Breer wrote. "As a rookie, Darnold played for Mike Shanahan protégé Jeremy Bates and had his best year in a scheme built to make the QB play fast." 

Breer also added that he believes "the 49ers' brass thinks Purdy’s capable of giving them the highest level of quarterback play they’ve had since Kyle Shanahan arrived in 2017." Assuming that's the case, it sounds like it's a matter of when and not if San Francisco will shop Lance unless the 22-year-old flips a figurative switch and becomes a Pro-Bowl-caliber player between the first full week of April and the Labor Day holiday weekend.