Brock Purdy’s Status, Belichick Won’t Comment on Lamar Jackson, and Other NFL Bullets

March 28, 2023, by Patrick K. Flowers NFL

The San Francisco 49ers QB situation will be one of the main storylines in a couple of months when NFL training camps open. Kyle Shanahan believes that Brock Purdy will be ready for camp, and he’s the likely starter. For now, anyway.

Trey Lance and Sam Darnold will head into camp healthy. The 49ers believe Brock Purdy will as well. But, there is still a degree of uncertainty about Purdy’s health and status for training camp.

Here’s what Shanahan had to say about Brock Purdy today at the league meetings in Phoenix:

“He won’t be able to do anything on the field for who knows? It could go anywhere from six months to eight months [of full recovery time],” Shanahan said at the annual league meeting. “So, it’s all open like that. I think we’ll have a better idea they say three months out of surgery, they have a better idea of whether it’s going to be six months or eight months. So, I don’t know. It’s how it heals.

“So, we’ll see in three months if he’ll be ready for camp. If not, we’ll possibly say hey, it’s going to be a little slower, Week One. I’m hearing at the latest Week Four. It’s all estimations and we’ll see what happens.”

Shanahan said that there’s an “outside chance” that Purdy won’t “heal right” and that’s why San Francisco signed Sam Darnold. Shanahan and GM John Lynch wanted to have two healthy QBs in camp in the event that Purdy wasn’t ready.

Still, from everything that we’ve heard this week, it seems like Purdy is the favorite to start Week 1 if he is healthy.

Panthers head coach Frank Reich revealed that newly-signed wide receiver D.J. Chark had offseason ankle surgery recently. Reich believes that Chark will be ready for part of the team’s OTAs.

Frank Reich: DJ Chark recently underwent ankle surgery. Could be ready for part of OTAs.
— Joe Person (@josephperson) March 28, 2023

We learned on Monday that rapper Meek Mill texted New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to let him know that Lamar Jackson wanted to play for the Patriots. We also learned that Lamar Jackson requested a trade on March 2. However, Kraft said he would leave that decision up to head coach and GM Bill Belichick. So, naturally, Belichick was asked about it at the owner’s meetings on Monday.

ESPN’s Mike Reiss asked Belichick whether there was a scenario in which the Patriots would pursue Jackson. Belichick said he’s “not going to talk about players on any other team.” When Reiss reminded Belichick that he was a free agent (despite being designated the Ravens’ franchise player), Belichick replied, “period.”

So, Belichick isn’t going to entertain the conversation publicly. But that doesn’t mean the conversation isn’t happening privately in New England.

Lamar Jackson to the Patriots? Meek Mill Told Robert Kraft that Jackson Wants In

Remember when Jonah Williams asked for a trade from the Bengals following the Orlando Brown Jr. signing? Well, it sounds like Bengals head coach Zac Taylor isn’t interested in accommodating that request.

Here’s what Taylor said to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

“I like everything about Jonah. I’m excited to see him come in and compete at right tackle,” Taylor said. “He’s always been everything we wanted him to be about. We’ve never had issues with him. Hopefully we can work through this and he can come in and compete at right tackle for us. That’s what we’re counting on him to do … He’s never been an issue and I don’t anticipate that being an issue.”