Kyle Shanahan Says Brock Purdy isn't Rusty

SANTA CLARA -- Brock Purdy hasn't played a real football game since 2023. Is he rusty?

That's the question facing 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan this week. Here's how he answered it, courtesy of the 49ers P.R. department.

Q: QB Brock Purdy mentioned that having a few weeks off, you were confident that he's come off rest before pretty well. How much of that is in your mind as you went into this and how much do you push him in his practice? Where do you think Brock is just coming off of some weeks now off?

SHANAHAN: "It’s not in my mind really much at all because he hasn't been on a Bye Week. We pushed the heck out of Brock, meetings, practice. We knew [QB] Sam [Darnold] was playing that whole game and Brock was still splitting reps with him. So, Brock got a good week in. We just didn't wanna put him out there in the first half of that game. So he did miss the first half versus the Rams. But he got that whole week in. He came back. He's been here. He has worked on his days off. We got two bigger practices last week than we do in a normal week. Brock went out with the guys on Monday, did a bunch of stuff with them and now we're going to get two practices in again. So in terms of time off, I mean, he did have two quarters off to what we could have done with him. But we definitely think that was worth it. I don't worry about that affecting Brock at all for Saturday."

TRANSLATION: No, Purdy isn't rusty because I prepared him in practice. So if he stinks against the Packers, blame him, don't blame me.

Clever answer, Kyle, but ultimately you're responsible for Purdy's readiness. So call some easy throws for him early in the game to make sure he has no rust left. Ease him into the game, or else.