Against the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy looked his most mobile since returning from his lengthy turf toe injury. His performance signaled that he has put the setback behind him and is no longer thinking about it when he's on the field.

It also showed that head coach Kyle Shanahan is not limiting the playbook to protect his quarterback.


General manager John Lynch joined Bay Area radio station KNBR this week and was asked whether the 49ers had officially taken the "training wheels" off Purdy, allowing him to play freely and move as he chooses.

"Just look at the Cleveland game," Lynch said. "We're in there, in cold weather, and the first two plays of the game are bootlegs. And so, I think those training wheels have been off. Once Brock came back and played ... action shows you better than anything.

"And so, he did it in practice. But then, how's he going to respond in a game? I think, for Brock—I've been there as a player—you've got to kind of feel it yourself. And early in that first game back, he showed us that he was good."

Lynch has seen good progress from his quarterback.

"I think it's gotten a little bit better, to the point where no one's thinking about it," he continued. "I don't want to speak for Brock. He probably still feels it, but he's not thinking about it. It's not affecting the way he's playing anymore. It's certainly not affecting the way Kyle's calling it. So, yeah, in our mind, he's back."


Purdy has played three games since returning from the injury, and the 49ers have won all of them, improving to 9-4 with the postseason well within reach.

Shanahan added that the entire playbook is available to his quarterback and that the team has moved past any concerns about the toe injury.

"We haven't held anything out," Shanahan said on Wednesday. "Once he's come back, especially halfway through that first game, [against] Arizona, I asked him after that game about his toe, on Monday, and I got such good answers. And he looked that way all week that I haven't asked him about his toe since."



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