Brock Purdy is back on the training ground after suffering a protracted elbow injury. However, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback appears to be still looking for form. In the training camp, Purdy already caused a few turnovers. “Mr. Irrelevant” will have to step up to continue his first NFL season.
As David Lombardi from “The Athletic” reported on Wednesday, the 23-year-old already has ten interceptions in the training camp to his credit. On Wednesday alone there were two, Purdy was even lucky that there wasn’t another one.
His coach, Kyle Shanahan, doesn’t want to exaggerate that. “You never want to see interceptions, no matter when. (…) But I definitely like it more when there are interceptions in training than in games,” said the coach.
Shanahan even takes positives from it all: “One thing that Brock does is he lets it rip. He doesn’t worry about anything else. Above all, he doesn’t worry about people counting his interceptions in training. That doesn’t mean they’re okay, but I like it when he lets off steam. I think it’s good that he learns from things he can’t get away with,” the head coach gives an insight into his thoughts.
NFL: Brock Purdy with a lot of confidence from the coaches
Nonetheless, Purdy should be a safe bet with the 49ers. The youngster took over last season after multiple injuries and surprisingly led the Niners into the NFC Championship Game. Due to his injury, he could hardly help his team there, San Francisco missed the Super Bowl.
Those responsible rewarded his good performance with great confidence. Despite his injury, Brock Purdy has been a favorite for the starting job since the beginning of the offseason – provided he recovers, of course.
And because the competition consisting of Trey Lance and Sam Darnold was not completely convincing, Purdy was given a kind of free pass. “He’d have to collapse completely in practice to lose his place (as a starter). And Brock is too good a player to collapse completely in practice,” Shanahan said.
The numerous interceptions don’t seem to change anything about that.