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Nick Wagoner, ESPN Staff Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy cleared one more significant obstacle on his road to starting in the team’s Sept. 10 season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Purdy will now be able to participate in three practices in a row without a built-in off-day, coach Kyle Shanahan announced during his conference call Monday. It’s another important step in Purdy’s recovery from offseason elbow surgery.
Purdy did not play in San Francisco’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in Sunday’s preseason opener, but Shanahan has said Purdy could play at some point in one of the final two preseason contests. The Niners host the Denver Broncos on Saturday evening.
Whenever Purdy does play, it will be his first live game reps since tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow in a Jan. 29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.
After a slight delay for swelling in the elbow to subside, Purdy underwent a procedure to fix the tear on March 10. From there, Purdy has been closely monitored as he’s worked his way back to full speed. He began a prescribed throwing program in late May, and his medical staff and the Niners cleared him to return to practice on July 25.
At the time, general manager John Lynch said Purdy would be able to practice without limitations but that the second-year quarterback would be following a plan that requires him to practice only two out of every three days. Shanahan said the hope was Purdy would be able to lose the requisite off-day after two weeks. This week is only a few days past that benchmark.
Throughout camp, Purdy has taken all the reps with the starting offense on the days he has practiced. Since the league meetings in March, Lynch and Shanahan have been adamant that Purdy will be the starter so long as he’s healthy. Purdy appears to still be on track to do just that, noting last week that his arm feels good.
“In terms of my arm and everything, yeah, my arm feels great,” Purdy said. “Just still building back-to-back days and trying to gain all the strength that I can back from the rehab process of things and I feel really confident.”
In other Niners injury news, tight end George Kittle (adductor) is not expected to return this week, but Shanahan said the team is hoping he’ll be back next week. San Francisco is, however, expecting to get defensive ends Drake Jackson and Robert Beal Jr., defensive tackle Kalia Davis, linebacker Dre Greenlaw, receiver Danny Gray and running back Elijah Mitchell back to practice this week.
Safety George Odum (shoulder), linebacker Oren Burks (knee) and receiver Ray-Ray McCloud (wrist) are not expected to return in the preseason, though Shanahan said the hope is that Odum and Burks will be ready for Week 1 and McCloud has insisted he shouldn’t be ruled out either.
“I think Ray-Ray’s would be the one that most likely won’t work out that way,” Shanahan said. “The other two we have got more hope than Ray-Ray, but as Ray-Ray keeps telling me, don’t count him out.”
