Niners QB Brock Purdy Requires Surgery To Repair UCL, Has Slim Chance Of Needing Tommy John

Rookie San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy suffered a nightmarish end to his fairytale season.

Facing the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game Sunday, just four quarters away from the Super Bowl, Purdy was knocked out in the first offensive drive of the game after getting his throwing elbow hit by Eagles pass rusher Haason Reddick.

After a day of testing, Purdy’s injury diagnosis has returned with damning news, though it definitely could have gone worse.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Purdy suffered a torn UCL to his throwing elbow, which will require surgery and a solid recovery timeline ahead.

Brock Purdy and Haason Reddick. (Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Where the injury could have truly gone south is if Purdy required Tommy John surgery, the one-time “kiss of death” procedure for MLB pitchers, for complete reconstruction of the ligament.

Based on the early prognosis, Purdy’s UCL tear will not require Tommy John surgery; so if all goes well, he’ll be able to return around the time of training camp ahead of next season.

Meanwhile, ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting a six-month timeline and that no surgery decision has been made yet.

Had Purdy been advised to get Tommy John, the budding young QB could have be restrained to a nine month to a year recovery timeline, which all but rules him out for his sophomore season.

Purdy Dodges A Bullet?

Purdy still managed to return to Sunday’s game after backup QB Josh Johnson suffered a concussion in the third quarter. As Purdy tested the elbow on the sidelines leading up to Johnson’s injury, the optics clearly conveyed that he would be incapable of throwing the ball beyond short passes. Once Purdy returned to the game, he was relegated to mostly handing the ball of to Christian McCaffrey as the Niners suffered a slow death in the second half en route to a 31-7 loss.

Along Purdy’s heroics that engineered a seven-game winning streak for San Francisco, the talks of keeping him as the franchise starter over experiment QB Trey Lance or impending free agent Jimmy Garoppolo grew stronger.

From having the best QB depth in the NFL to losing four names on the depth chart, the Niners find themselves stuck in uncertainty regarding the most important position in football.

Even with a roster of Pro Bowl caliber players on both sides of the ball, the Niners remain under the boot of QB problems.