Brock Purdy has already earned my immense respect, and any accomplishment from here on out is gravy. Of all the things he has left to do before truly having a legacy… Super Bowl win, league MVP, other statistical accomplishments… he would become an actually immortal legend if he’s able to turn Dante Pettis into an NFL wide receiver. I’m really curious to see how Dante has adjusted and evolved since his first stint. I was a believer initially, and I hated to see it all turn out the way he did. Maybe he’s gained an edge after bouncing around the league for a while.
49ers reuniting with former second-round pick Dante Pettis
“During the 2025 season with the Saints, Pettis appeared in eight games, recording nine receptions for 127 yards and averaging 14.1 yards per catch. His most recent receiving touchdown came in 2024 with New Orleans.”
49ers practice and media schedule ahead of Week 4 matchup vs. Broncos
“Wednesday, September 30:
12:35 p.m. – Kyle Shanahan press conference
1:30 p.m. – Practice
Thursday, October 1:
12:30 p.m. – Practice
After practice (approx. 2:20 p.m.) – Raheem Morris press conference
Following Morris – Klay Kubiak press conference
Following Kubiak – Brock Purdy press conference
Friday, October 2:
12:35 p.m. – Practice
After practice (approx. 1:35 p.m.) – Kyle Shanahan press conference.”
Brock Purdy, the NFL’s most underappreciated player
“Another trait that gets lost in the Purdy discussion is his aggressiveness. Shanahan gives Brock plenty of “easy outs,” like a six-yard pass to George Kittle or a swing pass out of the backfield to Deebo Samuel.
But that’s just not how Purdy is wired. More often than not, he’ll forgo gimme completions for a tight-window throw 15 yards downfield. It happens every week. It happened on his first dropback of the game to Mike Evans. It happened later on a backside throw to Kittle. He’s not interested in first-level routes.
Where Brock has grown the most, even since last year, is his ability to manipulate defenders. You can only do this if you know the offense inside and out. Purdy has shown a knack for getting to the second and third progressions in the blink of an eye, but he’s holding defenders with his eyes to create bigger throwing windows.
What’s been prevalent for two weeks in a row is Purdy manufacturing chunk plays against the blitz. It’d be easy for Brock to check the ball down and be content with a five-yard gain against five- and six-man rushes.
But again, that’s not how he’s wired. He’s a swing-for-the-fences kind of quarterback. You think you can get over on him by bringing extra rushers? He’ll make you pay at the intermediate level. The beauty is that the throws are on time and fit within the structure of the offense.”
49ers minutia minute: Fred Warner, Osa Odighizuwa weathered career highs in snaps (paywall)
“Odighizuwa’s 71 snaps set a career high and nearly matched the number of snaps he played in the first two games combined (77). His previous career high was 64 snaps in Week 12 of the 2024 season, when he was with the Dallas Cowboys.
Among the newcomers asked to play bigger roles Sunday, perhaps the biggest standout was Kareem, who logged the third-most snaps and finished with two quarterback pressures and three solo tackles. Givens, meanwhile, had an impressive 22.2 percent pass rush win rate on his nine rushes. To put that in perspective, Aaron Donald’s win rate so far this season is 21.4 percent.”
Inside George Kittle’s 243-day recovery from torn Achilles
“Milligan told Kittle about an athlete who came back from the same injury but had a huge difference in the size of his legs because he didn’t properly strengthen both of them before returning to field work. That athlete tore the ACL on his other leg in his first year back.
Kittle bought in immediately. Within minutes of getting his cast off, he was doing pointed toe flexes. Once he shed his walking boot, Milligan instructed him on which inserts to put in his shoes, starting with 3.5 centimeters. The inserts got smaller as he progressed, down to the 0.75 ones he still wears.
….Most importantly, Kittle never lost sight of the importance of strengthening both legs. Using numbers collected from the 49ers, Milligan and Rojas knew how strong Kittle was before the injury. To ensure the legs stayed within 10% strength of each other, Milligan tracked his calf girth and put him on a strain gauge to measure his raw toe-push force against a weight room floor plate.
As Milligan emphasized, the goal wasn’t just to get Kittle back on the field. It was to get him back as close to his normal level of performance as possible. That meant continuing to do the boring single leg heel raises or marble pickups for about 90 minutes to two hours every day over the course of 10 weeks…..Since there are only so many exercises you can do on the Achilles — calf raises off a wedge while standing, seated, with bands or with isolation holds — Rojas tried to challenge Kittle by forcing him to do it all from different angles to best simulate some of the sudden football movements.
Some days, Rojas threw Kittle tennis balls. Other days, they chatted about life, trying to find ways to break the boredom.
All the while, Kittle was deploying his secret weapon: the BFR. A BFR is, essentially, a tourniquet that Kittle strapped to his thigh to cut off the blood flow into the muscles he was working. It tricks the brain into thinking it’s taking on heavier loads than it actually is. According to Kittle, it’s a better method to work to failure when you can’t bear weight on the leg.
In any Achilles recovery, the BFR is a suggested tool used a couple of times a week. Kittle used it twice every day.
He also used the BFR as a recovery method, inflating it to 100% and then laying down for a few minutes so when he deflated it, the blood rushed back into the leg.
“It’s really hard,” Rojas said. “It makes the easiest thing really challenging. It enabled us to push him hard from a muscular standpoint without putting a ton of stress on the Achilles that was healing … Him really pushing through some of that boring stuff and pushing that calf to fatigue is why he was able to get back so fast.”
49ers overreactions: Does Brock Purdy’s talent neutralize defensive injuries?
“Of this much we are certain: The 49ers eventually will move their team headquarters and practice facility from its current location in Santa Clara. The organization is in the process of scouting sites that have more acreage for practice fields and office space.
And, at least for optics, it is a good bet there will not be an electrical substation looming in the background of every video shot from their future location.”
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