On Thursday night, two NFC West rivals will square off, with the Los Angeles Rams hosting the San Francisco 49ers in a matchup of 3-1 teams.
But the 49ers, already hampered by injuries, are wondering if three of their offensive stars will be ready for the game.
Quarterback Brock Purdy and wide receivers Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings are expected to be questionable for Thursday night’s game. Purdy is dealing with a setback to the toe injury he suffered earlier in the season, and the two wide receivers are hampered by injuries they picked up in last Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Purdy suffered a toe injury in the season-opening win over the Seattle Seahawks and missed games against the New Orleans Saints and the Arizona Cardinals. He returned to action against the Jaguars and completed 22-of-38 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in the loss to the Jaguars.
As Purdy played, Mac Jones, who replaced him for those two starts, was dealing with an injury of his own, a knee sprain that he reaggravated after initially injuring it during training camp.
According to Kyle Shanahan, Purdy called his coach Sunday night to relay that his toe was bothering him again.
“Hopefully we’ll find out more later today, but any time guys are sore and hurting on a Monday, you usually don’t stress too much about it,” Shanahan said. “But anytime you have a Thursday game, it’s a totally different element. So, I’m concerned with anybody who’s not totally healthy at this moment, but we’ll have to get more information on that later today to really have a clue of what to speculate.”
As for the two wide receivers, Pearsall suffered a knee injury in the game on Sunday and tried to return after testing it out, but eventually was sidelined for the remainder of the contest.
“I was testing out my knee,” Pearsall said. “I fell pretty hard on that play on the sideline, trying to keep my feet in bounds, and I fell pretty hard on my knee. I was just feeling pain and a little bit of instability. I wasn’t trying to mess with it.”
Shanahan described it as a “minor” injury.
“They’re thinking more of a minor PCL or something like that is what our guess is, just landing on it hard,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully it won’t be too bad. Obviously, a huge concern with the Thursday night game and stuff, but we’re not expecting it to be too bad.”
Jennings, who was sidelined with ankle and shoulder injuries against Arizona, was sandwiched between a pair of defenders on a successful two-point try and injured his ribs.
“It’s just part of football,” Jennings said. “I try to let my family, outsiders know that’s part of the game. We get hit, but we bounce back. Playing through injuries is nothing new.”
Purdy, Pearsall, and Jennings were all estimated as non-participants on Monday by the 49ers.
Update: Per Adam Schefter, none of the three practiced on Tuesday.