Kurtis Rourke might not play this season.
The 49ers drafted him in Round 7 even though he played through a partially torn ACL last season and had surgery in January to repair it. This was his second ACL surgery.
After the draft, Rourke provided an update on his recovery from knee surgery.
Q: You had surgery in January. Where are you at in your rehab and how’s the knee feeling?
ROURKE: “Yeah, I’m in a really good spot. Really excited about where I am and I’m looking forward to getting on the plan of the 49ers and their medical staff and starting to figure out what the future looks like.”
Q: I know you said that you’ll be on the 49ers timeframe, but do you get the sense that this year will be kind of a redshirt year for you while you recover?
ROURKE: “We’ll see how things go. My mindset has always been get back as soon as I can and as soon as I can do anything, then I’m going to do it. That’s the way I was in the first time around and that’s the mindset I have this time. So definitely want to be a part of the 49ers plan, but again, going to be pushing for as early as possible.”
Q: What were the challenges of playing with that injury last year?
ROURKE: “There wasn’t too much. I definitely stayed in the pocket a little bit more than normal and than I have in my past years. But I loved being able to sit back in the pocket and beat people with my mind. And so that’s kind of how our offense kind of shifted as the season went on. But if I needed to make a play or run to get a first down, I was going to do that anyway. The pain wasn’t crazy, it was more discomfort. And so, just something that I had to work through.”
MY TAKE: I'm guessing Rourke will redshirt this year because he probably won't be cleared in time to participate in training camp. And even if he makes a miraculously quick recovery, he won't know the system yet, and so he probably will be fourth on the depth chart behind Brock Purdy, Mac Jones and Tanner Mordecai who spent last season on the practice squad.
The 49ers probably hope they can stash Rourke on the Injured Reserve List for a year while they teach him the system.
