Some of the 49ers starters may be making their preseason debuts Saturday when the team hosts the Denver Broncos at Levi’s Stadium for the second of three preseason games.
While there’s nothing set in stone yet, head coach Kyle Shanahan sounds like he’s leaning toward the starters, including quarterback Brock Purdy, getting a little playing time against Denver. He told Tom Tolbert and Adam Copeland on KNBR in San Francisco that the starters could see a series before giving way to the backups.
“We plan on (QB) Sam (Darnold) going the first half,” Shanahan said. “We just finished practice here, so I’m gonna talk to our trainers with the rest of our team and everything. I might get Brock in there for a little bit. I have not finalized that yet, but thinking about playing the Ones possibly for a series. A little in the first quarter, but whatever that is, if we don’t, Sam will have the whole first half. And if those guys do open the game with Brock and some of the Ones, it probably won’t be much longer than a series or two.”
This is in line with what Shanahan on Wednesday told reporters after practice, though Thursday he sounded more open to the starters playing Saturday. He did say the club planned on flipping the QB roles where Darnold would get the first half before giving way to Trey Lance in the third quarter.
The only real change aside from that if Purdy and the starters do play is that they’d cut into Darnold’s playing time by a series or two.
