San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy will not play on Sunday, and head coach Kyle Shanahan said the ongoing discomfort is a concern.
Purdy missed practice on Friday after participating in the beginning of Thursday’s practice. He then went inside for what Shanahan described as a treatment session.
Brandon Allen, 32, will start in Purdy’s place, and the 49ers will also be without defensive end Nick Bosa, who is dealing with an oblique injury. Shanahan said the players believe in Allen, even though he’s not widely known outside the team.
“Outside of here people haven’t seen a lot of Brandon. But it’s his second year (with the 49ers),” Shanahan said. “Obviously guys want Brock up, but guys are excited to see Brandon play.”
Shanahan mentioned they were “a little surprised” that Purdy felt tightness and discomfort in his shoulder after an MRI on Monday showed no major issue.
“The way it responded this week, it’s really up in the air for next week,” Shanahan said about Purdy.
Allen is familiar to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, who worked as an assistant coach with the Rams when Allen was there for two years. Allen entered the NFL in 2016 with the Jaguars and has a 2-7 record in nine career starts. He went 1-2 with the Broncos in 2019 and 1-5 in six starts over two seasons with the Bengals in 2020 and 2021.
Shanahan said Allen’s confidence grew throughout the week, and he doesn’t expect a major change in how he calls plays for the offense.
Left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) also missed practice for the third day in a row.
General manager John Lynch confirmed on Friday that an MRI was done to check the severity of Purdy’s shoulder injury, though the exact details of the injury were not shared.
Allen worked with the first team for most of Thursday and Friday, with Joshua Dobbs also taking some snaps.
Lynch described Purdy’s status for the 49ers (5-5) as “tenuous” this week.
“Hopefully, he makes progress, and we can have a shot at this weekend, but we’ll see,” Lynch said in an interview with KNBR in San Francisco. “I think it’s tenuous.”
When Purdy was on the field this week, he mostly worked on the side in position-specific drills with QB coach Brian Griese.
Williams played through an ankle injury last week after being listed as questionable but left the stadium with a noticeable limp on Sunday.
Run game coordinator Chris Foerster said the 49ers’ 5-5 record isn’t due to injuries but because they haven’t been able to win close games.
“Seven games left is like an eternity,” Foerster said. “So much can happen. Do the math. What was our record last year? It was 12-5. I was on a 13-win team that was nowhere near as good as the team last year.”
Foerster added that, with or without Purdy, the main challenge for the 49ers is to avoid turning the ball over against a defense that has 19 takeaways.
The 49ers have given the ball away 13 times this season.
