San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy claims his throwing arm looks ‘robotic’ after elbow surgery

‘Niners quarterback Brock Purdy expects to be throwing a football by June and could be on schedule to practice with few limitations when the San Francisco 49ers open training camp in late July.

Purdy, 23, had surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right arm earlier this month, but 49ers general manager John Lynch said the second-year quarterback would be in line to start if the season began now.

But the trouble with assessing Purdy in April is the only real measure of his progress comes when throwing begins.

‘The protocol is you start throwing at three months, but it all depends on how your therapy and your range of motion and everything goes up until that point,’ Purdy told the San Jose Mercury-News. 

‘There are definitely some boxes I have to check off first before I get to that point, but that’s the plan as of now.’

Brock Purdy went from being the last pick of the last year’s NFL draft to the Niners’ starting QB in under less than a year, partially due to injuries sustained by the team’s other QB options

Purdy will start throwing three months post surgery, having repaired his right UCL early April

Purdy made a stunning rise from being the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft to leading the 49ers into the NFC Championship Game.

He said the size of the elbow brace he’s wearing during the first part of his post-op rehab makes it appears as if he has a ‘robotic arm.’

‘When you first get in it after surgery, you’re in it at 90 degrees. From there, you can start opening it up to help with your range of motion,’ Purdy said. ‘It is just to keep your arm safe when you’re out walking around or doing therapy. But at night, I can take it off and just do some normal motions with just looking at my arm.

‘But yeah, out in public, it looks like I have a robotic arm.’

When he gets back on the field, he’ll have company in the form of Trey Lance and Sam Darnold, a pair of former No. 3 overall picks, though the Niners brass revealed  that the former seventh-round pick will likely start if he’s healthy enough to be ready for the new season. 

The 23-year-old injured his right elbow on a fumble against the Eagles in the NFC title game

And despite being sidelined for a while, Purdy isn’t distracted by his own personal objective: to return to the NFC Championship Game again and prove last season’s loss would have been a different story, had he not gone down injured on the first drive.

‘That’s to get back to the NFC championship and win the Super Bowl,’ Purdy said. ‘You do have to get past (the injury). But at the same time you have to sort of remember the things that happen, that make you who you are.

‘For me, I’m not going to let something like that tear me down or anything. I’m going to learn from it and we’re going to get better.’

The 49ers signed Sam Darnold as a cover for next season in case the team deals with another year full of QB injuries

Lance, the third pick in 2021, began last season as San Francisco’s starter but sustained a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2.

Darnold signed as an unrestricted free agent after two seasons with the Carolina Panthers, who acquired him from the New York Jets. The Jets drafted Darnold with the third pick in the 2018 draft.

Purdy, selected with the 262nd and final pick in the 2022 draft, emerged as the No. 1 quarterback for the 49ers after Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo went down with injuries. 

He was undefeated in seven games before losing his eighth, the NFC Championship Game, after injuring his elbow in the first quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles.