San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach Brian Griese was among the assistants that sat down and spoke with reporters on Wednesday morning. The quarterback position has been a hot topic this offseason, with no shortage of rumors and speculation. Of course, that is something with which 49ers fans have become too familiar in recent years.
Last season's surprise rookie, Brock Purdy, is returning from offseason surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, an injury sustained in the NFC Championship Game.
Trey Lance entered last season as the 49ers' starting quarterback but suffered a season-ending ankle injury. The former No. 3 overall pick is entering his third NFL season but still lacks experience, having started only four games.
In March, the 49ers signed veteran Sam Darnold, who has 55 starts under his belt but hasn't seen much success during his five NFL seasons. Two months later, the team added veteran Brandon Allen, who most recently served as Joe Burrow's backup in Cincinnati.
"I love our room," Griese said. "Our guys are supportive of each other and are genuinely happy for each other's success. They all are competitive, and they want to be out there on the field, and they want to play, and they want to contribute. But they also understand that they're part of something bigger than themselves, and that's really cool to be around."
Brock Purdy
Most didn't expect Purdy to return to the practice field before the second half of August. Even that seemed optimistic. However, when the 49ers reported to training camp on July 25, Purdy was cleared to practice. That was a pleasant surprise.
"I didn't really know what to expect with Brock, to be honest with you," Griese said. "Me personally, I tempered my expectations as to when he might be back. Now, I knew that he was going to do everything he possibly could to get back in time, but you never know. So it was really just a nice—I wouldn't call it a surprise—but I was just genuinely happy to see him out there the first time he had the opportunity to be out there."
The 49ers are being smart while ramping up Purdy's workload. The team gives their recovering quarterback days off to rest, allowing Lance, Darnold, and Allen more practice reps. But when Purdy is practicing, he is doing so with the first-team offense.
"So really, he's just getting back his body back into playing football, throwing the ball, reading defenses, going through all the mental reps," Griese said. "So it's really early. We just got out of the starting gate. ... But I'm encouraged by Brock's health. Most importantly, that he's able to go out and throw 100 balls in a practice (counting warm-ups) and be able to come back the next day and not be sore. That's really encouraging."
Has Griese seen any arm fatigue or endurance issues so far in training camp?
"No, it hasn't been an issue," the coach responded. "I was anticipating that it would be an issue, but from what he communicates to me, it hasn't been."
Purdy guided the 49ers to eight consecutive wins before suffering his injury in the NFC Championship Game. The last overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft was the talk of the NFL, with many wondering if San Francisco could make it to the Super Bowl with a rookie quarterback.
Still, the performances weren't perfect.
"What he did last year was not normal," Griese shared. "And I think it's not normal because he was a rookie and because it was such a high profile position on a team that was winning 12 games in a row with a lot of really talented players on the team. And maybe the most impressive thing to me was a guy like that, as a young guy, 22 years old, rookie, last pick of the draft, that wasn't phased by the bright lights, wasn't phased by the other stars in the huddle when you walk in there as a rookie.
"It was not perfect by any stretch. And when we went back and looked at it, and identifying all the areas that Brock could improve off what he did last year, you start to get excited about that. We won 12 games in a row, we get to the NFC Championship Game, and there's still so much room for improvement from our position."
Video courtesy of Grant Cohn
Trey Lance
Lance had maybe his best-ever training camp practice on Monday. The quarterback's accuracy and savvy wowed reporters. Lance seemed to exhibit all the traits that excited the 49ers heading into the 2021 draft.
Lance worked hard this offseason with private quarterback coach Jeff Christensen to improve his mechanics. Has the effort paid off?
"Trey has gotten a lot better, and you can tell he's put a lot of time in," Griese said. "I think the way I kind of described it to you guys the last time we talked, first and foremost, he had to get healthy because a lot of what he was struggling with, from a mechanics standpoint, stemmed from him not being healthy, which is really difficult."
Lance suffered a finger injury during his rookie preseason. That injury lingered into the regular season and even into the subsequent offseason. It changed how the quarterback threw a football. Lance had to adjust his grib to compensate for the injured finger.
"Some of the things that he was doing because he was hurt with his finger, his mechanics, he had to unlearn that," Griese continued. "And that took time. And that takes a tremendous amount of reps and understanding of how you throw the ball as a quarterback. Everybody's different
"And so he's done that, and I'm really encouraged by what he's done and the strides that he's made. The ball is coming out really well. We'll see where it goes from here, when we get into live reps in preseason."
Griese wasn't with the 49ers during Lance's rookie season, joining the team last year. He studied Lance's first year, though. What kind of improvement has the coach seen from the quarterback from then until now?
Finally being healthy is significant for the young quarterback. Griese hopes that leads to Lance finding his natural rhythm and motion, and being as comfortable as he was at North Dakota State.
"I'm really happy that he's at that point where he's healthy enough to do that," Griese added. "And he's now put in work on top of that with his motion to give himself a chance to be more accurate. He looks a lot better, there's no question. And I'm excited about that, and I'm excited about him getting into some of these preseason games and having the positive reinforcement that he can build confidence and continue to do that going forward."
Sam Darnold
This offseason has been a whirlwind for Darnold, who is pushing himself to learn head coach Kyle Shanahan's offense as quickly as possible. That's no easy task, given the complexities of the system.
"This system is a little bit different than the systems he's been in the past," Griese explained. "There are some similarities, but there's a lot of differences. And my biggest hope for him was just that he would be able to digest the information and the verbiage and the nomenclature to a point where he could go out in camp and begin to feel comfortable and execute and play off of his instincts and allow himself to see how good he could be in this offense and compete. And he's getting to that point."
Griese points out that Purdy, the likely starter, has only played a handful of games himself. Lance is in his third offseason with the team but has even less in-game experience running Shanahan's offense.
"They're all learning," Griese continued. "They all need every rep, both physically and mentally. And Sam is just getting better each and every day."
Brandon Allen
The wildcard is Allen. Obviously, the 49ers like the quarterback. He is receiving significantly more training camp reps than you might expect from a fourth quarterback.
"He earned him in OTAs," Shanahan said on Sunday. "He did a good job in OTAs, and like today, he was the third quarterback (because Purdy was resting). So he got all the three reps, two of these four practices, which is a good amount."
What has the quarterback coach seen from Allen this offseason?
"Brandon's been in the league long enough to understand how it works, and he's very smart, picked up the offense really well," Griese said. "There was some similarities from what he did in Cincinnati in our system, so he was able to pick the system up quickly. And he's very instinctive. He understands and can read coverages and can anticipate throws. He's a very accurate quarterback, which has always been something that's very important in this offense.
"And so he's impressed us, and he's getting a little bit more opportunity and reps and practice. So we can see whether he takes advantage of those opportunities, and look forward to seeing him play in the preseason, also."