Brock Purdy has only started a handful of games, taking over as the San Francisco 49ers' starting quarterback last season after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured during Week 13. Some would argue that it is too early to anoint Purdy, who enters his second NFL season while coming off a severe arm injury.
Purdy underwent surgery in March to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow. Most didn't expect him to return until the second half of August, at the earliest. Surprisingly, the quarterback was cleared to practice when the 49ers reported for training camp last week.
Purdy has participated in five of the team's seven practices, taking two practices off as a precaution. Quarterback coach Brian Griese recently insisted he doesn't need it, but better safe than sorry.
What have the 49ers seen from their 23-year-old quarterback well into the second week of training camp? Is there still some concern about his injury?
"That's completely off my mind," head coach Kyle Shanahan said after Thursday's practice. "I mean, he's healed, he's healthy. Guys got to get in throwing shape, and they got to play and get used to that. That takes time, but I'm not thinking about his injury anymore."
Does the coach think Purdy is thinking about the injury?
"I think guys always do, but you don't step out there until you're healthy," Shanahan responded. "So even when guys' knees and stuff are healthy, they can go, and it takes a couple of things for them to have the confidence.
"You'd have to ask Brock, but I don't quite think this injury is as much like that, even just talking to other quarterbacks and stuff. It feels that way at the beginning, it feels that way for a few months, but once it heals, it's a pretty good track record with everyone on how healthy they are."
Purdy isn't where he hopes to be yet. Although, his coach is confident that will come with time and more practice reps.
"He's doing some good things," Shanahan said. "They're all doing some good, all doing some bad. But we're not worried about Brock. Brock's the real deal. He knows how to play, and we just got to have our team keep getting better, and he'll keep getting better as we go."
Clelin Ferrell's hit on Purdy in practice
There was an incident on Monday where defensive end Clelin Ferrell impacted Purdy's right arm. Defenders are not supposed to touch the quarterbacks in practice, much less Purdy, who is recovering from surgery on that arm.
"He just touched the ball out of my hand as I was going to throw it," Purdy said this week on KNBR, downplaying the incident. "It's all good, though. I'm all good. I'm confident in my throwing."
Purdy's coach, though, had to force himself to keep his cool.
"I had to hold my breath so I didn't lose my mind," Shanahan admitted. "I could see it was all right. It's human nature. The only way you can finish a sack is if you run, run, and reach. And those guys do it, and that's why we have to get on them all the time not to do it because it is human nature.
"And then they all do it, and they pull their hands back like they didn't. I used to get annoyed when coaches would make such a big deal about it when I was younger because it's like, 'Chill out, man. Just let them play football. It's not the end of the world.' And then eventually, you coach long enough, and you lose players in practice to some things like that, and you realize how big of a deal it is.
"So the defense gets annoyed with me a little bit on it, but I never stop talking about how to protect guys. And not just the quarterback, but we had too many people on the ground our last practice, and how to be physical but not go to the ground. So it's something we're constantly working on."
