HENDERSON, Nev. — Brock Purdy is 374 days removed from injuring his right elbow ligament in the NFC Championship Game, and even though he’s fully healthy for Sunday’s Super Bowl, he revealed Wednesday he wasn’t at full strength when this season began.
“It was a long process. I got cleared around 5½ to six months ago,” Purdy said in a press conference at the 49ers’ Lake Las Vegas hotel. “I’m not going to lie, I was still strengthening my arm as the season started.
“I was dealing with it but felt good enough to play and play Week 1. The rest is history,”
Purdy went on to set a 49ers single-season record with 4,280 yards while starting their first 16 games. He sat out the regular-season finale against the Rams because the 49ers already had clinched the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed.
As the 49ers jumped out to a 5-0 start, Purdy threw nine touchdown passes and no interceptions. If he was rusty or lacking arm strength, it certainly didn’t impact the 49ers early.
Purdy has alluded in the past couple of months to his arm getting stronger as the season progressed, especially when he did not throw during their bye week following three consecutive losses.
Purdy had an internal brace surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament last March 10, a procedure that was delayed a couple of weeks because of swelling from his injury on the sixth snap of the 49ers’ NFC Championship Game loss in Philadelphia.
His rehabilitation went so smoothly that he was throwing by June and fully cleared at the start of training camp in late July, although he was limited. “I’d do different exercises in rehab, so by nature (the) arm gets stronger, and I’ll continue to do those things moving forward,” Purdy said.
The 49ers held their first practice Wednesday on UNLV’s recently installed grass field, which the NFL Players Association claims was improperly placed atop a synthetic turf and thus created a surface that is too soft.
“Today we didn’t have as an aggressive practice in terms of running and cutting. That’s tomorrow,” Purdy said. “Today it was pretty good to get out there and move around with light running. We’ll see tomorrow how it is.”
With new faces among the media contingent at the Super Bowl, a lot of players are asked about their athletic backgrounds, and Purdy reflected fondly on how his development was enhanced by his flag football days in the Arizona suburbs of Gilbert and Queen Creek.
“I played up until I was about 12 and it helped with the speed of the game, hand-eye coordination, and stuff really developed for me playing flag,” Purdy said. “Being able to juke, cut, and move in certain ways helped me for tackle football. When I started playing tackle football, the pace was slower compared to flag. I always encourage kids to start out playing flag football to develop those skills.”