Brock Purdy is Back at Practice After a Concussion

Is Purdy a fast healer, or was his concussion relatively mild?

Grant Cohn | Oct 26, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

SANTA CLARA -- Brock Purdy still is in the concussion protocol, but he practiced with the 49ers on Thursday.

That doesn't mean he was a full participant -- he wasn't. He can't be one until he clears the protocol and no longer experiences concussion symptoms. But the fact that he was on the field warming up with his teammates, running around and throwing passes bodes well for his chances to play Sunday against the Bengals. And it raises two questions.

Is Purdy a fast healer, or was his concussion relatively mild?

Remember, the 49ers didn't know that Purdy suffered a concussion. Had no clue during the game or after. Purdy even did a full press conference, which injured players don't do. It wasn't until he was on the team plane flying home when he began to experience symptoms. And now he's back on the practice field. And he looks like himself. Yesterday he was in the locker room, and he looked like himself. Of course, that's not a medical diagnosis, but he seems like a player who expects to play on Sunday.

The 49ers could be cautious with him and sit him for a game, but that doesn't appear to be what's happening. They appear to be getting him ready to start. And maybe that's because he's ready, and maybe it's because they feel they need him to beat the Bengals. The 49ers can't afford to go into their Bye week on a three-game losing streak, and it's not particularly likely that they would beat Joe Burrow and the Bengals with backup quarterback Sam Darnold.

Shanahan will talk to the media next on Friday. That's when we'll learn Purdy's status. Stay tuned.

Published Oct 26, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.