The San Francisco 49ers’ season came to a screeching halt during the NFC Championship Game. They were defeated by the Philadelphia Eagles 31-7 as they were stuck behind the eight-ball once quarterbacks Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson both were injured.
Purdy injured his throwing elbow on the 49ers’ first offensive drive of the game. Haasan Reddick strip-sacked Purdy, hitting his arm in the process and injuring him. But, Purdy was forced back into the game early in the second half.
Johnson was knocked out of the game during the 49ers’ first drive of the second half with a concussion. That forced a hampered Purdy into the lineup, who was unable to throw the ball at all.
It was an ugly end to what was a great season in San Francisco as they are now officially starting their offseason. There will be a lot of questions about their quarterback position in the coming weeks, but one player who will not be factoring into it is Jimmy Garoppolo.
Garoppolo ended up starting 10 games for the 49ers this season after Lance broke his ankle. His season ended when he injured his foot in Week 13, which thrust Purdy into the starting lineup.
Garoppolo has been with the team since he was acquired from the New England Patriots on Halloween in 2017. His time with the franchise looked like it would be up last season, but he was retained as the backup to Trey Lance after no trade was consummated centered around him. Now, it is officially over according to head coach Kyle Shanahan.
That certainly clears things up a little bit for the 49ers, who have to find out the extent of Purdy’s elbow injury before moving forward at the position. He could miss anywhere from 6-12 months depending on the severity, as a fully reconstructive Tommy John will keep him out for at least one year.
Lance will hopefully be healthy enough to get back under center this offseason, but is that an experiment that the 49ers want to go through with? It will be interesting to see how things play out as a veteran will almost certainly be added to the mix in the offseason, but that veteran won’t be Garoppolo.
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