The 49ers won a fourth-straight game to open the season on Sunday, and scored 30-plus points in each of those performances.
Kyle Shanahan provided generally positive injury updates ahead of what will be San Francisco’s most challenging opponent this weekend in the Dallas Cowboys. He also assessed where Brock Purdy is at as a quarterback.
Injury updates
The only new injury from the game on Sunday was one that was already known. Interior offensive lineman Jon Feliciano suffered a concussion and remains in concussion protocol.
There were no other new injuries picked up from the game, but three players will be day-to-day this week:
- Deebo Samuel is still dealing with rib and knee injuries
- Jauan Jennings still has a shin injury that kept him out on Sunday
- Elijah Mitchell is working through a knee injury after banging his knee in practice on Thursday.
Other than that, there’s nothing new to report.
Shanahan impressed, but not surprised by Purdy
It seems like every time Kyle Shanahan is asked about Brock Purdy and his development, he’s trying to find the words without saying something backhanded to reporters.
His responses, if you were a Shanahan translator, roughly amount to a translation of, “Well he was great last year. He’s still great? Did you not watch the tape?”
On Monday, it came up after Shanahan offered his initial assessment of Purdy and the offense, following Purdy’s near-perfect, 20-of-21 performance.
“I mean, he was pretty good,” Shanahan said. “He made all the right throws and the O-line played well, gave him some good time, some real good pockets. I thought all the eligibles, receivers, tight ends running backs played well. Thought he was awesome yesterday.”
A follow up was asked later about what Purdy does pre-snap in identifying coverages, and so-called “efficiency at the line of scrimmage.”
Has Shanahan seen Purdy develop from last year in that aspect? Yes, but not really. Here’s what he said:
I mean, he was real good in those last year, too. I mean, he came in right away and didn’t make much mistakes on that stuff. His first game was the hardest because he didn’t get the reps and stuff. But after that he always did get the reps and he was very prepared in those games.
That’s why we were so impressed with him in the seven games we got to play with him and that’s why he gave us the confidence to go into this year with him.
And he took off right where he left off and just like everybody, the more you get out there the more you put yourself through it, all the stressful situations, the more confident you get, the easier it gets. But he was so good at it last year and I feel like he’s stayed the same, if not gotten a little bit better.
“He’s stayed the same, if not gotten a little bit better.”
That’s Shanahan telling us all, “duh,” the kid is good. The questions about Purdy continuing to prove how capable he is probably confound Shanahan because it’s clear how well he’s executing the offense.
So much of what he does, too, is understanding where to put the ball when, and when to come off a target. That’s high-level pre- and post-snap processing that shows up each week. Shanahan’s not surprised anymore and it doesn’t seem like he understands why anyone else is.
