1 49ers draft pick may not be ready for start of training camp
1 49ers draft pick may not be ready for start of training camp
The San Francisco 49ers selected University of Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke with the 227th overall pick in this year's draft with an eye toward the team's future behind QB Brock Purdy.
Rourke is 6-4, 220 pounds and has an NFL-caliber arm. Whether the ultimately develops into an NFL-caliber signal caller remains to be seen, and that development may have to wait awhile.
The 49ers selected Rourke knowing he's on his way back from an ACL tear he sustained in 2022 and had surgically repaired after the 2024 season when he threw for a career-high 29 touchdowns. That knee surgery is likely to keep Rourke from making any immediate contributions.
"Know he did it the whole year with a, he had a broken finger, a torn ACL and still was really, really impressive," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said in his post-draft press conference. "And we're in a situation where getting a guy with a torn ACL and he probably won't be cleared by training camp, but it'll be close. It's not an issue for us right now. But obviously, with [QB] Brock [Purdy] and [QB] Mac [Jones] and love [QB] Tanner [Mordecai] too, so I thought it was just a very good valuable pick for us, for a guy who might not be ready for another year, because I think he's about seven-months out because he got it done after the season. But we're in a situation where we could take him and I think he would've gone a lot higher if he was healthy.'
We speculated after the pick that Rourke may be on track to work in as a third QB this year with an eye toward a long-term backup role behind Purdy. That may be put on hold for the entire 2025 season as he works his way back, but that won't disqualify him from at least competing for a backup job in 2026.
Mordecai, a 2024 undrafted rookie, spent all of last year on the practice squad. Jones is on a one-year deal. The backup QB job will be open next season which may be just in time for Rourke to step in and make his mark as a pro.
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