QB Brock Purdy Press Conference

QB Brock Purdy

Press Conference – May 23, 2023

San Francisco 49ers

How’s your rehab going?
“It’s going good. Yeah, I’m feeling good and taking it one day at a time.”

Is next week the week that you’ll pick up a football and throw a football?
“Yes, sir. That’s the plan.”

That’s still May, we’d always heard June 1^st, looking at June, does that mean that you’re a little bit ahead of things?
“Yeah, I’m not necessarily sure like in terms of the timeline and are we on schedule, are we not. We’ve just been taking it from what the physical therapist, the surgeon, what they’ve said, what it looks like with guys that they’ve worked on. Hey, this is like the next step and we’ve just been following the plan and really it’s just how your arm feels on a day-to-day basis and a week-to-week basis. And you go from there and you make decisions from there, so that’s just where we’re at.”

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said he was optimistic that you’d be ready week one. Are you feeling like that as well?
“Yeah, I feel good, arm is feeling good. To say I’m going to be ready by this time or this time, we’re not trying to label any kind of timeline like that. For sure though, that’s a goal. You want to be ready for the season and if that’s the case, great, but we’re just taking it one day at a time and don’t want to say anything that we regret down the road or whatever.”

How hard has it been to balance recovery and really wanting to get out on the field with everybody?
“Yeah, it’s just been sort of new to me. It’s my first time going through a rehab from a surgery. It’s the offseason, so it was fine doing the workouts and everything, getting back into it, but then once you see guys starting to practice and you watch, it’s like man, you want to be out there. That’s just the competitive side of it, but I’m still able to watch the film, be in the meetings, learn and grow and see what I did last year and learn from the good and the bad, so I’m still taking a lot of good things out of the offseason.”

You got hurt on January 29th and you had to wait until March 10^th to have surgery. What were your emotions like during that time? Was there some anxiety as far as what the future held?
“For me, I knew everything was going to work out how it needed to. In the moment, it was, alright, what do I have to do next? What’s the surgery look like and when is that going to be? That’s just what I was more focused on. Not, what is my future going to consist of or anything like that. I’m at peace with whatever happens, God-willing, and everything falls into place where it needs to, so yeah, I wasn’t trying to focus too far into the future with anything like that.”

I don’t know if you were able to look back at the good and bad from last year. When you went and watched yourself, what did you see on either side of those things?
“Yeah, the good, just in terms of having confidence, man, playing at this level, you have to have confidence in going in and being consistent. I feel like those are things when I first went in, I just stuck to what [head coach] Kyle [Shanahan] was coaching me on. And then as I started playing, there’s times where you want to make some plays and things like that, and you start to get out of what they’re coaching. I feel like playing within what they’re coaching and just playing consistent ball as an NFL quarterback, I think that’s something that I can work on. And I’ve watched the film with Kyle and [quarterbacks coach Brian] Griese and all of them and they all say the same thing, so those are just some things I took away from last year and what I have to work on.”

Your thinking, it’s mostly forward or what’s going on, but rehab time gives you idle time. And I’m just curious as to, did you have much time just to reflect from what happened to you from the point of the draft all the way to the end of the season when you got hurt against the Eagles? All those events. It must be pretty remarkable to even sit back and take all that in.
“Yeah, I definitely had some time to just reflect on everything, especially after once we knew when I was getting the surgery and all that, got all settled and then just took some time to, yeah, from last year, finishing my senior year of college and then trying to scratch and claw my way into making a team and then all the way up until the NFC Championship. Man, I was just seeing how good God was and is and how great of a story he can create with anybody. And obviously for myself being thankful for the way things have turned out and the things that I’ve learned along the way with just adversity and trying to make the team and then trying to do good in preseason games. And once my opportunity had come, Week 13, taking advantage of that opportunity, so there’s so many things that had happened within the last year and the offseason was great just to take a step back, reflect on everything and be thankful.”

I can see you have a sling on your arm, I think even at the Giants game on TV, pretty soon after surgery, you were kind of moving around. In real life, is there any limitations, anything that you’re experiencing or you can’t do with that right arm?
“After surgery you get out of the brace and everything like that. You just got to regain your strength and start lifting and doing things like that. So yeah, I’m not going to, I don’t know, do something crazy where I’m lifting something heavy after surgery, but the last month or so it’s been regaining your strength and yeah, I’m lifting and doing everything normal now, so it’s feeling good and yeah, I feel like I can do everything around the house now, so, yeah.”

In March, both Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch said that John’s words were that you’re the leader in the clubhouse as far as being the starter to open this season if you’re healthy. How did you take that? And I’m sure they obviously told you the same things. What did that do to your mindset to hear that vote of confidence from both of those men?
“Yeah, I just try to focus on where I’m at right now, and for me it’s getting my arm healthy. To say all these things and say you want to be this kind of guy or that kind of guy on the team. I think that’s just in a sense, foolish, just for myself to think like that. Like for me, I come into work every day trying to get my arm right, try to be around the guys and do what it takes to win. We want to win a Super Bowl here, and that’s simple as that. I just do my job and everything else falls into place, but I’m just trying to be present. I’m not trying to get caught up in rumors or what people were saying or anything like that, but for the fact of them to say that, yeah, I’m appreciative to see what we did last year and winning 12 games in a row and everything that we did as a team, it was a great accomplishment, so we just want to build off that momentum.”

What’s the quarterback room dynamic like now with QB Sam Darnold in there, QB Brandon Allen in there and QB Trey Lance. Does quarterbacks coach Brian Griese run it, like, how vocal, I guess, are you if you’re not out there on the field?
“No, yeah, the dynamic is great. Brandon has played for a numerous amount of years and his experience with [Cincinnati Bengals QB] Joe Burrow has been great. To have him come in and just see how he thinks about football and obviously Sam, where he’s been, and how [Carolina Panthers quarterback coach] Josh McCown has helped him out. And then obviously Trey, and we’ve been around Griese and [offensive passing game specialist Klint] Kubiak [and assistant quarterbacks coach Klay Kubiak], so I think just all of us as a collective just understanding what our scheme is, what Kyle is teaching us, and just helping each other out within the meetings and seeing things from different perspectives from all of us because we’ve all had some kind of experience of playing, so it’s been great so far. The dynamic is great. We all get along really well and I’m really excited moving forward with this group of guys.”

What’s your plan for just the rest of this offseason? Will you stay here to do all the rest of your rehab or will you get away? What’s kind of how you lay it out?
“Yeah, we got to finish out everything through OTAs here. See how I feel, but I think the plan would be good back down to Jacksonville with my quarterback guys I trained with before the draft, Tom Gormely and Will Hewlett, as I start to throw more and I want to just make sure my mechanics and everything are right. So go down, work with them for a couple of weeks, and then get back here.”

How would you compare to where you’re at right now mentally in the offense compared to last year at this time?
“Yeah, last year, every single night it’s like study and sort of stress out about I got to learn this concept and this one and go run it at OTAs and try to prove myself to my teammates and coaches. And so obviously this year, I’m not out in the field, but being able to when a play call comes in and I hear it and I can see it better mentally and it just happens a little bit quicker, but there’s still a lot of details and things that I can clean up with how I operate and see the defense, so that’s what I’m working on right now. But I think, yeah, it’s like a night and day difference for sure coming in as a rookie compared to now.”

Was there a certain point last year where you did hit kind of a comfort zone with what you’re talking about?
“No, I would say during the season compared to offseason, just play calls like OTAs, camp, you’re running your base plays. During the season you get into more just scheme of playing a defense and so the plays are different every week, but I feel like the flow, how a play call comes in, being in the huddle, taking command, all that kind of stuff started to click after the Tampa Bay game and sort of just rolled from there. But before that, yeah, I think just playing quarterback and leading and talking to guys and communicating, those are all things that people don’t really necessarily see that are huge. Just the way your teammates look at you, they have confidence in you, they can sense that you have confidence, so yeah, I feel like that’s an area that I’ve grown in.”

How does quarterbacks coach Brian Griese returning help you and your preparation for season two?
“Oh yeah, it’s been great, really just picking up where we left off last year. I always say like his experience, he’s been in our shoes, so he’s able to relate to a lot of things. What we’re seeing, how we’re feeling, situational football, so to pick up the momentum that we had from last year and then him being able to really just break down protections and different concepts, having Griese in our corner has been a blessing. He’s the man.”