San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has told reporters that Brock Purdy will not play in the team’s season finale against the Los Angeles Rams, via Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk.
Shanahan has tabbed Sam Darnold as the starting quarterback for the rather meaningless matchup on Sunday.
The 49ers are 12-4 and have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the NFC, meaning they will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Some wondered if Shanahan would opt to play Purdy to allow him to get into an even stronger rhythm heading into the playoffs, but apparently, Shanahan has seen enough.
Purdy rebounded from his dreadful Christmas Day performance with a solid showing against the Washington Commanders this past weekend, going 22-or-28 with 232 yards and a couple of touchdowns in a 27-10 win. Two weeks ago, Purdy threw four interceptions—three in the first half—in San Francisco’s embarrassing loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
On the season overall, Purdy has thrown for 4,280 yards, 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 69.4 percent of his passes and posting a league-high passer rating of 113.
Throughout the course of the year, Purdy was viewed as one of the leading candidates to win the NFL MVP award, but his brutal outing against the Ravens probably sabotaged his chances, particularly with Baltimore star Lamar Jackson coming on strong the past several weeks.
Purdy, who played his collegiate football at Iowa State, was selected by the Niners with the last overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.
He began his rookie campaign as the 49ers’ third-string quarterback, but was pressed into starting duty as a result of season-ending injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Purdy won all five of his regular-season starts, totaling 1,374 yards, 13 touchdowns and four picks while completing 67.1 percent of his throws and registering a passer rating of 107.3. He then led the team to a pair of playoff wins before getting injured early in San Francisco’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles during the NFC Championship Game.
He showed Shanahan enough to be name the Niners’ starting signal-caller going into 2023 and won his five starts of the year yet again.
We’ll see what Brock Purdy can do in the playoffs.
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