49ers cornerback says there’s ‘no drop-off’ between Brock Purdy, Sam Darnold; Shanahan confident in both QBs

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the 49ers are dealing with an injury at quarterback. This week, starter Brock Purdy popped up on the injury report with head coach Kyle Shanahan telling reporters that the second-year signal-caller is in concussion protocol. After missing Wednesday’s practice entirely, Purdy was able to suit up on a limited basis on Thursday but still needs to clear protocol in order to play Sunday against Cincinnati. If he can’t, that’d thrust veteran Sam Darnold into the starting lineup. 

While you may think that going from your traditional starter to a backup would be a downgrade for any given club, there does seem to be plenty of confidence in Darnold within the Niners locker room. In fact, cornerback Charvarius Ward even went so far as to say that there’s “no drop-off” when inserting Darnold in over Purdy. 

“I expect us to win, same as I do with Brock,” the cornerback told Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle, via 49ersWebZone.com. “Darnold’s a seasoned vet. He’s played six years; he came in the NFL with me. I expect him to come in and sling that motherf—er around. Ain’t no drop-off. We’re good.”

Darnold earned the QB2 job this summer after beating out Trey Lance, who has since been traded to Dallas. Even before landing in San Francisco this offseason, Shanahan has been an admirer of Darnold from afar for quite a while.

“I’ll be excited for Sam to come in,” Shanahan told KNBR on Thursday. “I mean, Sam has done a lot of good things since he’s been here. He looks great on the practice field. Got to play with him in a couple of preseason games. But when you go into an NFL game with someone for the first time, there’s always some newness to both of us. Just feeling it out, feeling with the team. But Sam’s played a lot of football, and when he gets out here, he’s got such command, got a ton of confidence.

“The guys around here, they believe in him a ton. They’re amazed with how good he is throwing the football and stuff, some of the throws he makes on scout team, what he did throughout training camp. And if his opportunity with us for the first time is this Sunday, he’ll be ready to go, and our guys will be excited to follow him.”

Darnold started the final six games of the season for the Panthers last season. Over that stretch, he completed just 58.5% of his passes but did register a 92.6 passer rating. He averaged 190.5 passing yards per game, and threw seven touchdowns to go along with three interceptions, while also rushing for 106 yards and two more scores.