Justin Smith has left the building; No Bruce in sight

Rohan Chakravarthi and Marco Martinez discuss both championship games ahead of the weekend, including their thoughts on the best pure wide receivers left between the 49ers, Chiefs, Bengals, and Eagles. The audio for the show is embedded above. You can listen to the Rohan Chakravarthi Show from our dedicated podcast page, on Apple

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy could become the first rookie quarterback to start a Super Bowl. But first, he'll need to get past the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Purdy will become just the fifth rookie quarterback to start a conference championship game since 1970. The other four lost their starts. The other quarterbacks were Shaun King of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1999), Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers (2004), Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens (2008), and Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets (2009). Three of those quarterbacks were first-round picks. King was a second-round pick. Purdy's emergence since taking over for an injured

Heading into the regular season, the San Francisco 49ers saw potential in rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, who prepared and competed like a guy who has been in the league for years. Still, no one could have predicted what the 23-year-old would do in his first NFL season. The 49ers lost starter Trey Lance to an ankle injury in Week 2. Then, Jimmy Garoppolo went down with a foot injury in Week 13, setting the stage for one of the most intriguing storylines of the season. Purdy took over for Garoppolo, and the 49ers offense hasn't skipped a beat. In fact, production improved with the rookie under center. Yes, Purdy's teammates trusted the youngster, but he still had to go out onto the football field and prove it. Purdy played most of that Week 13 contest

The San Francisco 49ers were always impressed with Christian McCaffrey, going back to his pre-draft evaluation in 2017. That's why when rumors started spreading that the Carolina Panthers running back might be available via a trade in October, general manager John Lynch and his staff jumped into action. Tight end George Kittle remembers when he first heard about the trade. "I was literally playing video games, and my buddy goes, 'Hey, did you see Twitter? You guys just got Christian McCaffrey,'" Kittle shared last week. "And I said, 'Shut the front door,' and I called [McCaffrey] immediately. He was like, 'I have no idea what's going on.' I was like, 'Neither do I, but welcome to the Niners, man. We're going to have a good time.'" About 48 hours