When San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy did not suit up in Week 1 of the preseason, as the team trotted out its entire backup offensive unit, many were confused with the strategy, given the lack of in-game experience over the signal-caller's career.
Fast-forward to Week 2, and there was still some uncertainty heading into the weekend on whether Purdy would play until head coach Kyle Shanahan went onto KNBR on Thursday and shared that he will look to try and give the starting offense a series or two.
Is it important for Brock Purdy to be playing in the preseason?
In a radio interview on KNBR Thursday, Shanahan illustrated the 49ers' quarterback plan, which is essentially a flip of last week's outcome, although Purdy could sprinkle in a series or two to begin the game.
"We plan on Sam going the first half still," Shanahan said. "We just finished practice here, so I'm going to talk to the trainers with the rest of our team and everything. I might get Brock in there for a little bit. I have not finalized that yet, but thinking about playing the ones, for possibly a series, a little in the first quarter."
Darnold is expected to get the first set of backup reps, like Trey Lance did last weekend, while the latter will work in the second half.
If Purdy does play however, it's not expected that he will eat much into Darnold's reps; it'll be a maximum of one to two series, according to Shanahan.
"But whatever that is, if we don't (play Purdy), Sam will have the whole first half. And if those guys do open the game with Brock and some of the ones, it probably won't be much longer than a series or two."
That leads us back to the question: does Purdy need reps in the preseason?
Last weekend, when Purdy didn't suit up against the Las Vegas Raiders, I actually didn't have an issue with the decision.
Why? Because Purdy's "preseason" action essentially came in the crucial joint practices that led up to the game, where the starting quarterback got a majority of the reps and faced off against the Raiders' first-team defense consistently.
It's most valuable to face off against the opposing team's top defense, and that only would've come in the joint practices, hence why Shanahan distributed a majority of the reps to his starter, while allowing the backups to duke it out during the game.
Now, given the importance of those joint practices, taking the performances there at face value is important.
Context is obviously required and the understanding of a practice environment has to be noted, but you cannot just disregard what entails in those joint practices, especially when head coach Kyle Shanahan himself said that he values those sessions more than the game itself.
Now, with no joint practices this week, it is absolutely important that Purdy suits up with the first-team offense, even if it is for a few reps only.
While Purdy impressed the staff with his performance in 2022, he's still a second-year quarterback in need of as many reps as possible, and game reps against the opposing team's top defense are invaluable for a young signal-caller.
Purdy is recovering from a torn UCL injury, but has been fully cleared to practice and has stacked consistent days, so the idea of his health being a deterrent from his playing shouldn't be a factor.
Now, the last step to prepare for the season is getting the quarterback as many reps as possible, and that starts with preseason action on Saturday against the Denver Broncos.
- Rohan Chakravarthi
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Written by:Writer/Reporter for 49ers Webzone
