November 14, 2025 • 8 mins
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, who is likely to start in Week 11 against the Arizona Cardinals after recovering from a right big toe injury that had sidelined him for six weeks.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are jumping
straight into the source material for a really high stakes
look at the San Francisco forty nine ers. Our mission
here is to dissect their mid season health reports, and
we're not just looking at who's back, but why their
returns tell us so much about the team strategy exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I mean, these reports are so revealing. You've got this
dual tension of a starter Brock Purty coming back from
a pretty complex injury, all while it's back up Mac
Jones was, you know, putting up some borderline elite numbers.
So this deep dive is really about the philosophy you
need to handle that, plus the medical reality. For a
key guy like Ricky Piersol, the.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Quarterback drama is impossible to avoid, right, But let's set
the table with the medical facts. First, Rock Purty looks
like he's going to start Week eleven against the Cardinals.
He said himself, he feels really good, healthy. But you
know when a QB who depends on that precise movement
is out six weeks with the tow injury, we need
to understand what that recovery actually looks like.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And what's fascinating is the injury itself, right, big toe issue,
what he called a turf toe variation. Look, this isn't
just a bruise. Turf toe hits the soft tissue supporting
that big toe. Join. For a quarterback, that big toe
is your anchor. It's where you generate power, every single throw,
every quick shift in the pocket, all that rotational force.
(01:17):
It starts with that push off.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Right, So he gets hurt in week one against the Seahawks. Yeah,
tries to come back in week four against the Jags,
and that's where it gets worse, because the toe gets
what was the quote, caught in a bad position. That
one moment cost him six weeks.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It did six long weeks. And the good news medically speaking,
is that pretty confirmed. Surgery was never really on the table.
He said he consulted with multiple sources and doctors and
they all agreed it was about rest rehab, not the
operating room. The team was smart too, They kept him
off injured reserve, which gave him the flexibility to practice
the second he felt up to it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, but hang on, if surgery was ruled out, why
the six full weeks. Does that long of a wait
suggest they were just being extra cautious or was the
toe healing.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think it's a mix of a few things. You know,
given how much a QB relies on that toe, you
risk chronic nagging issues if you rush back. So caution
was definitely part of it. But you also have to
factor in the Mac Jones variable. They had a backup
who was winning games that gave them the luxury of
extending Purdy's timeline until he went from what Shanahan called
(02:22):
an aggressive limited participant to a full participant in Thursday's session.
That full participation, that's the green light, the absolute medical
clearance they were waiting for.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's the perfect pivot point because if we connect this
to the bigger picture, the reason this whole thing is
so interesting is because of how well Mac Jones played.
Jones wasn't just you know, managing games. He was putting
up numbers that make you pay.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Attention if you absolutely was. He started eight games, led
them to a five to three record, which is very respectable.
But the stats, the stats telling even bigger story about
just how good he was during that time.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, so break those numbers down for us. What did
those eight start actually look like compared to the rest
of the league.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I mean they were pretty elite. Jones ranked second in
the entire NFL in passing yards per game two hundred
and sixty eight point nine. He was ninth in completion
percentage at almost seventy percent, and tenth in yards per attempt,
and maybe most importantly, his QBR that's the total quarterback rating,
which looks at context and clutch play, not just yards,
was sixty five point one. That ranked twelfth overall. That's
(03:24):
not just good backup play. That is statistically borderline Pro
Bowl level stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
That kind of success is It's almost disruptive, isn't it.
You rarely see a team get rewarded like that for
their depth. So it creates this strategic problem. If your
backup is playing like a top ten guy, why rush
the starter back from an injury that affects his mechanics,
doesn't Shanhan's decision kind of go against that whole play
the hot hand idea.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, it raises that classic organizational question for sure, But
Shanahan's stance is firm and for the long term, it's
probably strategically sound. He confirmed Jones's success would not factor
into the decision, not at all. The philosophy the NFL
really is that you build a hierarchy based on who
you think maximizes your ceiling for a championship.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Your potential, Yeah, the highest ceiling exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Purdy won that job. He's the guy they believe gives
them the best shot long term. You don't bench that
guy for a hot streak, no matter how good it is.
By bringing Purty back only when he is one hundred percent,
Shanahan sends a message to the whole locker room. Our
decisions are about health and our established order, not a
competition driven by a few good weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And Purdy's comments they really reflect that he was all
about his physical health, saying he didn't want the decision
clouded by the political side of things, and he also
showed I think a lot of leadership. He openly thanked
Mac Jones for keeping things going. He said, Jones came
in and played extremely well and kept our team alive
and moving and going.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That gratitude is so important for team chemistry. Purdy knows
he benefited from Jones playing so well. It meant he
could actually heal without feeling this immense pressure of a
sinking ship needing him to come back too soon.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Speaking of the locker room. Let's bring in George Kittle's
perspective here. I mean, the tight end has been catching
passes from both of them.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Kittle is the pulse of that offense. If anyone knows
the vibe in there, it's him.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
He said he's played with Party for years, and he
really values his energy and his leadership. So he's suggesting
there's a real emotional lift from having the starter back.
He also said he expects their connection to get going
pretty fast. But and this is key, He gave a
lot of praise for the depth, saying, I'm just happy
that we have two very talented quarterbacks who can both
sling the ball. That's a really diplomatic way of acknowledging
(05:33):
how valuable mac Jones was. All right, let's shift gears. Now,
let's go to the other side of that injury report.
It involves a very different and you could argue a
much more frustrating recovery timeline. Wide receiver Ricky pearsl.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, this is where you really see the battle between
a medical timeline and an athlete's mental readiness. Personal injured
his PCO, the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee,
and it happened in that same Week four game against
the Jaguars.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And at first his talk was just a couple of weeks, right,
But that absence just stretched on and on. What made
a PCL recovery so tricky for a wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So the PCL basically stabilizes your knee, stops the shinbone
from sliding too far back. For a receiver a skill guy,
as Pearcell called himself, that's a disaster. They don't just
run straight. They have to plant their foot hard, decelerate
in an instant, and then make these sharp ninety degree
cuts all off that injured leg. That sharp deceleration puts
(06:28):
incredible stress right on the PCL. The sources say Purcell
just couldn't generate that explosive power without significant pain.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So it all comes down to the demands of his
specific position, and he's an important piece too. Purcell isn't
just death. He's a guy who stretches the field. His
return gives their offense a vertical threat they've been missing.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Absolutely when he was out, you saw fewer deep shots,
less to pull the safeties away from the line of scrimmage.
He's been a limited participant in practice this week and
now appears on track to be back against the Cardinals.
That just dramatically changes the playbook.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And what really stands out to me in the source
material is how honest person was about the mental part
of it. He admitted he didn't feel ready at any
of those weeks before now because the pain was just
too much. That's a huge thing for a pro athlete
to say out loud.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
It speaks volumes, doesn't it. It tells you everything about
these complex knee injuries. I mean, it's one thing for
the ligament to be structurally healed, it's a whole other
thing for the athlete to trust it enough to make
those violent, high speed moves in a game. For Percell
to say he can now push through it, that suggests
he's finally over that massive mental hurdle, and that's often
(07:38):
the last hardest step.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So if a pull back and look at the big
picture here, the forty nine ers are basically getting two
offensive cornerstones back. At the same time, you've got the
starting quarterback returning after six weeks with a clean bill
of health, no surgery, just time, and a really dynamic
skill player in Riky Personal coming back after a much
tougher and more complicated recovery.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Key takeaway for you listening to this is really the
incredible benefit of having depth. Mac Jones's great performance literally
bought brock Purdy the time he needed to fully heal
that turf doo. They avoided a rushed return, they stayed stable,
they stayed in the playoff hunt, and now they get
to go into the back half of the season with
their leader at full health. That's just the best possible outcome.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
It really does set them up perfectly. Yeah, but if
you're looking ahead, here's the final thought. We want to
leave you with organizational loyalty, team structure. It all said,
brock Perty gets his job back when he's healthy. But
when the replacement, Mac Jones, puts up genuine top ten
level stats for almost two months, how much pressure does
that success subtly put on Purty? Now? Has the baseline
(08:44):
expectation for the forty nine ers offense just been raised,
Does Perty have to come back and immediately play at
the high level Jones just established. That's the challenge they're
facing now.
Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are jumping
straight into the source material for a really high stakes
look at the San Francisco forty nine ers. Our mission
here is to dissect their mid season health reports, and
we're not just looking at who's back, but why their
returns tell us so much about the team strategy exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I mean, these reports are so revealing. You've got this
dual tension of a starter Brock Purty coming back from
a pretty complex injury, all while it's back up Mac
Jones was, you know, putting up some borderline elite numbers.
So this deep dive is really about the philosophy you
need to handle that, plus the medical reality. For a
key guy like Ricky Piersol, the.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Quarterback drama is impossible to avoid, right, But let's set
the table with the medical facts. First, Rock Purty looks
like he's going to start Week eleven against the Cardinals.
He said himself, he feels really good, healthy. But you
know when a QB who depends on that precise movement
is out six weeks with the tow injury, we need
to understand what that recovery actually looks like.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And what's fascinating is the injury itself, right, big toe issue,
what he called a turf toe variation. Look, this isn't
just a bruise. Turf toe hits the soft tissue supporting
that big toe. Join. For a quarterback, that big toe
is your anchor. It's where you generate power, every single throw,
every quick shift in the pocket, all that rotational force.
(01:17):
It starts with that push off.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Right, So he gets hurt in week one against the Seahawks. Yeah,
tries to come back in week four against the Jags,
and that's where it gets worse, because the toe gets
what was the quote, caught in a bad position. That
one moment cost him six weeks.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
It did six long weeks. And the good news medically speaking,
is that pretty confirmed. Surgery was never really on the table.
He said he consulted with multiple sources and doctors and
they all agreed it was about rest rehab, not the
operating room. The team was smart too, They kept him
off injured reserve, which gave him the flexibility to practice
the second he felt up to it.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, but hang on, if surgery was ruled out, why
the six full weeks. Does that long of a wait
suggest they were just being extra cautious or was the
toe healing.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I think it's a mix of a few things. You know,
given how much a QB relies on that toe, you
risk chronic nagging issues if you rush back. So caution
was definitely part of it. But you also have to
factor in the Mac Jones variable. They had a backup
who was winning games that gave them the luxury of
extending Purdy's timeline until he went from what Shanahan called
(02:22):
an aggressive limited participant to a full participant in Thursday's session.
That full participation, that's the green light, the absolute medical
clearance they were waiting for.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's the perfect pivot point because if we connect this
to the bigger picture, the reason this whole thing is
so interesting is because of how well Mac Jones played.
Jones wasn't just you know, managing games. He was putting
up numbers that make you pay.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Attention if you absolutely was. He started eight games, led
them to a five to three record, which is very respectable.
But the stats, the stats telling even bigger story about
just how good he was during that time.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, so break those numbers down for us. What did
those eight start actually look like compared to the rest
of the league.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I mean they were pretty elite. Jones ranked second in
the entire NFL in passing yards per game two hundred
and sixty eight point nine. He was ninth in completion
percentage at almost seventy percent, and tenth in yards per attempt,
and maybe most importantly, his QBR that's the total quarterback rating,
which looks at context and clutch play, not just yards,
was sixty five point one. That ranked twelfth overall. That's
(03:24):
not just good backup play. That is statistically borderline Pro
Bowl level stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
That kind of success is It's almost disruptive, isn't it.
You rarely see a team get rewarded like that for
their depth. So it creates this strategic problem. If your
backup is playing like a top ten guy, why rush
the starter back from an injury that affects his mechanics,
doesn't Shanhan's decision kind of go against that whole play
the hot hand idea.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, it raises that classic organizational question for sure, But
Shanahan's stance is firm and for the long term, it's
probably strategically sound. He confirmed Jones's success would not factor
into the decision, not at all. The philosophy the NFL
really is that you build a hierarchy based on who
you think maximizes your ceiling for a championship.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Your potential, Yeah, the highest ceiling exactly.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Purdy won that job. He's the guy they believe gives
them the best shot long term. You don't bench that
guy for a hot streak, no matter how good it is.
By bringing Purty back only when he is one hundred percent,
Shanahan sends a message to the whole locker room. Our
decisions are about health and our established order, not a
competition driven by a few good weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
And Purdy's comments they really reflect that he was all
about his physical health, saying he didn't want the decision
clouded by the political side of things, and he also
showed I think a lot of leadership. He openly thanked
Mac Jones for keeping things going. He said, Jones came
in and played extremely well and kept our team alive
and moving and going.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That gratitude is so important for team chemistry. Purdy knows
he benefited from Jones playing so well. It meant he
could actually heal without feeling this immense pressure of a
sinking ship needing him to come back too soon.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Speaking of the locker room. Let's bring in George Kittle's
perspective here. I mean, the tight end has been catching
passes from both of them.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Kittle is the pulse of that offense. If anyone knows
the vibe in there, it's him.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
He said he's played with Party for years, and he
really values his energy and his leadership. So he's suggesting
there's a real emotional lift from having the starter back.
He also said he expects their connection to get going
pretty fast. But and this is key, He gave a
lot of praise for the depth, saying, I'm just happy
that we have two very talented quarterbacks who can both
sling the ball. That's a really diplomatic way of acknowledging
(05:33):
how valuable mac Jones was. All right, let's shift gears. Now,
let's go to the other side of that injury report.
It involves a very different and you could argue a
much more frustrating recovery timeline. Wide receiver Ricky pearsl.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, this is where you really see the battle between
a medical timeline and an athlete's mental readiness. Personal injured
his PCO, the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee,
and it happened in that same Week four game against
the Jaguars.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And at first his talk was just a couple of weeks, right,
But that absence just stretched on and on. What made
a PCL recovery so tricky for a wide receiver.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So the PCL basically stabilizes your knee, stops the shinbone
from sliding too far back. For a receiver a skill guy,
as Pearcell called himself, that's a disaster. They don't just
run straight. They have to plant their foot hard, decelerate
in an instant, and then make these sharp ninety degree
cuts all off that injured leg. That sharp deceleration puts
(06:28):
incredible stress right on the PCL. The sources say Purcell
just couldn't generate that explosive power without significant pain.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
So it all comes down to the demands of his
specific position, and he's an important piece too. Purcell isn't
just death. He's a guy who stretches the field. His
return gives their offense a vertical threat they've been missing.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Absolutely when he was out, you saw fewer deep shots,
less to pull the safeties away from the line of scrimmage.
He's been a limited participant in practice this week and
now appears on track to be back against the Cardinals.
That just dramatically changes the playbook.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And what really stands out to me in the source
material is how honest person was about the mental part
of it. He admitted he didn't feel ready at any
of those weeks before now because the pain was just
too much. That's a huge thing for a pro athlete
to say out loud.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
It speaks volumes, doesn't it. It tells you everything about
these complex knee injuries. I mean, it's one thing for
the ligament to be structurally healed, it's a whole other
thing for the athlete to trust it enough to make
those violent, high speed moves in a game. For Percell
to say he can now push through it, that suggests
he's finally over that massive mental hurdle, and that's often
(07:38):
the last hardest step.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So if a pull back and look at the big
picture here, the forty nine ers are basically getting two
offensive cornerstones back. At the same time, you've got the
starting quarterback returning after six weeks with a clean bill
of health, no surgery, just time, and a really dynamic
skill player in Riky Personal coming back after a much
tougher and more complicated recovery.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Key takeaway for you listening to this is really the
incredible benefit of having depth. Mac Jones's great performance literally
bought brock Purdy the time he needed to fully heal
that turf doo. They avoided a rushed return, they stayed stable,
they stayed in the playoff hunt, and now they get
to go into the back half of the season with
their leader at full health. That's just the best possible outcome.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
It really does set them up perfectly. Yeah, but if
you're looking ahead, here's the final thought. We want to
leave you with organizational loyalty, team structure. It all said,
brock Perty gets his job back when he's healthy. But
when the replacement, Mac Jones, puts up genuine top ten
level stats for almost two months, how much pressure does
that success subtly put on Purty? Now? Has the baseline
(08:44):
expectation for the forty nine ers offense just been raised,
Does Perty have to come back and immediately play at
the high level Jones just established. That's the challenge they're
facing now.
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