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Report: Brock Purdy Will Start Against the Bengals

Remember, Purdy suffered a concussion just six days ago during the 49ers' loss to the Vikings on Monday Night Football.

Grant Cohn

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The Brock Purdy fairytale isn't over yet.

Purdy cleared the final stage of the NFL's concussion protocol on Saturday and will start today against the Cincinnati Bengals, according to The NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Remember, Purdy suffered a concussion just six days ago during the 49ers' loss to the Vikings on Monday Night Football. But he didn't feel concussion-like symptoms until the plane ride back to Santa Clara, and apparently his symptoms were mild. That's how he cleared the concussion protocol in less than a week. Still, if he suffers a second concussion against the Bengals, that could be scary, because the second concussion usually is much worse than the first. Tua Tagovailoa suffered two concussions in two weeks last season, and the second one knocked him out cold and made him miss games.

It's clear why the 49ers are so eager for Purdy to start despite his concussion -- he still gives them their best chance to win. And the 49ers need to win this game. It's not a must-win, but it's close, because the 49ers can't afford to go into the bye week on a three-game losing streak. That would be incredibly deflating -- how could they call themselves Super Bowl contenders at that point? And how could they get the No. 1 seed? It all could slip away with a loss to the Bengals.

So the 49ers are asking Purdy to save them. And he has to save them without Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel, both of whom are out due to injuries. And if Purdy plays poorly and loses, he just might get thrown under the bus and replaced by Sam Darnold during the bye week.

No pressure, Brock.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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