Kyle Shanahan reveals why Brock Purdy didn’t come back in for the 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers had a Christmas to forget as they lost 33-19 to the Baltimore Ravens at home, which means they now will likely need to win their last two games to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

It was an ugly game from the start, but the 49ers were still in it by halftime, down just 16-12 despite committing three turnovers.

But, San Francisco struggled to start the second half, and the Ravens quickly pulled away to a three-score lead that the 49ers couldn’t recover from.

To make matters worse, the 49ers saw several players sustain injuries, including quarterback Brock Purdy and left tackle Trent Williams.

Williams suffered a groin injury and asked to come back in, but did not return, as the medical staff advised against it. He’ll have an MRI for the injury.

Purdy, on the other hand, suffered a stinger to his shoulder for the second consecutive week, but was cleared to play and could’ve potentially gone back in.

But, Shanahan decided to go with quarterback Sam Darnold in the fourth quarter to close the game instead, leaving his top signal-caller watching from the sidelines.

What was the reasoning for the decision?

“Possibly,” Shanahan said about Purdy being able to return. “I didn’t even ask. I know he had a bad stinger and we had three O-Linemen out at the time. I don’t want him to go in and not be ready for next week.”

Is there any concern going forward?

“Nothing I’m concerned about, but you know how stingers are and it could be worse tomorrow, but I think it’ll be alright,” Shanahan clarified.

Purdy downplayed his injury, citing the protocol as the need for taking a few plays off before him and Shanahan ultimately decided that the game script didn’t favor him returning in the game.

“I mean, I played the whole game fine, not thinking about it or anything,” Purdy said about playing through last week’s game with the same stinger injury. “It wasn’t even a thing. And just the way I got tackled on that play, it sort of just lit up again just like last week. So I had to go through the whole protocol process in the tent again and everything like that. That’s just sort of just how it went down.”

“I mean, we had talked about just the scenario of the game, where we were at, just got a stinger and my arm was coming back, feeling normal and whatnot,” Purdy said about his talks with Shanahan. “And so, he was just like, where we’re at in the game, [QB] Sam [Darnold] had gone in and scored and he goes, for right now we’re just going to go with Sam just by how things are going. And we didn’t want anything else popping up with the stinger and all that kind of stuff, but it was just where we were at situationally. So, Sam was doing good and we rolled with him.”

It is likely that Purdy will return to the fold next weekend, as the injury doesn’t appear serious.

With that in mind, the 49ers, and Purdy himself, will look to bounce back and get a much-needed win against the Washington Commanders on the road next weekend.