The San Francisco 49ers are 3-0 after a clutch win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. But just as they were last season, they’re being ravaged by the injury bug.
Tight end George Kittle (hamstring), wide receiver Jauan Jennings (ankle/shoulder) and quarterback Brock Purdy (toe) missed Sunday’s game. During the contest, Mac Jones, who has filled in well for Purdy the last two weeks, re-aggravated a PCL sprain, while star defensive end Nick Bosa tore his ACL and is done for the season.
But there is a bit of good news on the injury front for the Niners. Per ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, head coach Kyle Shanahan expects Purdy to return to practice this week. That seems to indicate that there’s a real chance Purdy will be under center this weekend when San Francisco hosts the Jacksonville Jaguars.
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Purdy was a bit shaky in Week 1 versus the Seattle Seahawks with two interceptions, but he completed 26 of 35 pass attempts and finished with 277 passing yards and two touchdown passes. He also engineered the game-winning drive in the waning minutes and threw the go-ahead touchdown pass to tight end Jake Tonges.
While Jones has played two games of solid football, he simply isn’t Purdy. In particular, he has badly missed some passing attempts downfield that Purdy likely would’ve been on target with.
With Bosa forced to watch the rest of this season from the sideline, the Niners will have to turn up their offense in order to get to the playoffs and make some noise there. Running back Christian McCaffrey is healthy again and is putting up big numbers, even if he hasn’t been efficient so far, and he has become a bigger threat in the passing game.
Second-year wide receiver Ricky Pearsall may be in the process of becoming a stud for the 49ers. The first-round draft pick has 281 receiving yards through three games, which is third in the NFL, and his 17.6 yards per reception ranks fourth in the league.
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The 49ers are waiting on wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk to make his return from the torn ACL and MCL he suffered last October. While he had been playing poor football in 2024 to that point, he logged 75 catches, 1,342 yards and seven touchdowns the previous year as San Francisco came within a whisker of winning the Super Bowl championship.