{"id":504677,"date":"2026-10-22T22:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T22:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504677\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T22:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T22:08:13","slug":"49ers-purdy-could-be-without-mike-evans-for-first-time-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/504677\/","title":{"rendered":"49ers, Purdy could be without Mike Evans for first time this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTA CLARA \u2013 Brock Purdy\u2019s layered passes and air-show spirals will target radically different receivers Sunday in Atlanta<\/a> than his options three months ago in training camp.<\/p>\n

Mike Evans<\/a> may or may not be one of them.<\/p>\n

Definitely not suiting up: Ricky Pearsall, De\u2019Zhaun Stribling, Demarcus Robinson, Deebo Samuel, KhaDarel Hodge, and, oh yeah, Dante Pettis.<\/p>\n

Christian Kirk, injured the first day of camp, may make his season debut Sunday, joining an eclectic mix with Brandin Cooks, Jordan Watkins, Jacob Cowing, Malik Turner and possibly a practice-squad callup. Those were Purdy\u2019s targets in Thursday\u2019s rainy, Evans-less practice.<\/p>\n

No matter how many practice reps are spent with replacements, none will command Purdy\u2019s trust more than George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey.<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 status is most concerning. He\u2019s been Purdy\u2019s clutch-situation muse in their 6-0 start, even though separate injuries kept Evans from finishing 3-of-4 home games so far.<\/p>\n

His Achilles tendinitis flared up so bad Sunday he hobbled to the locker room before halftime of that 23-17 escape against Washington. He didn\u2019t practice all of last week nor has he this week, when he\u2019s otherwise been spotted wearing hyper-recovery sneakers.<\/p>\n

So, with next week\u2019s bye upcoming, it would not seem likely that Evans, gritty as he is, plays in Atlanta, right?<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s not likely. It\u2019s still TBD,\u201d general manager John Lynch said on KNBR 680-AM. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a couple more days and will take every bit of those to ascertain where Mike\u2019s at. He\u2019s done a really good job treating this thing and obviously we know of Mike\u2019s toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 49ers will rely on their patchwork unit to bridge the gap through their bye to a Nov. 8 restart against the Raiders. Samuel (hamstring) and Robinson (ankle) should be cleared by then, and so might Evans so long as his Achilles pain cooperates, whether he plays Sunday in Atlanta or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively I think we\u2019ll be fine. We\u2019ve got a ton of weapons,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cPost-bye, we\u2019re going to be getting some guys back and we\u2019ll continue to evaluate everything. But we\u2019re going to get some things to feel like acquisitions with guys just getting healthy, and we\u2019ll continue to monitor the rest of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 last meeting with the Falcons took an emotional toll on him. In returning from a broken collarbone, he had 132 yards on six catches, but his host Tampa Bay Bucs lost 29-28. Television cameras caught Evans walking off the field and up the stadium tunnel in disbelief over the Falcons\u2019 winning drive that included a third-and-28 conversion.<\/p>\n

Once Evans headed to the Levi\u2019s Stadium locker room Sunday, Purdy attempted only nine more passes: 2-for-4 to Kittle, 3-for-4 to McCaffrey, and 0-for-1 to Cooks.<\/p>\n

Kirk, meanwhile, has impressed in his second week of practice since his hamstring injury when training camp opened. \u201cHe\u2019s been preparing mentally, so it\u2019s impressive to see him step in and be sharp on the details,\u201d offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said.<\/p>\n

YORK BACK IN BUSINESS<\/p>\n

Jed York, the 49ers\u2019 principal owner, returned from a six-game suspension this week and promptly attended the NFL\u2019s fall meeting in New York. \u201cWe went through a full process to understand the facts, understand the issues,\u201d NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in Wednesday\u2019s press conference. \u201cWe looked at it under our personal conduct policy, which, as you point out, applies to owners, commissioners, everybody else, and players. It\u2019s something we feel strongly about. We need to represent ourselves and our organizations properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

York also drew a $500,000 fine in the wake of his August arrest in an Ohio prostitution sting and his no-contest plea to two misdemeanor charges. \u201cWe saw a violation and we dealt with it from a discipline standpoint that\u2019s concluded now,\u201d Goodell added.<\/p>\n

York voluntarily skipped the 49ers\u2019 first three games, including their season-opening win over the Rams in Melbourne, Australia. Goodell called the NFL\u2019s Australian debut \u201ca tremendous success on really every level. \u2026\u00a0To get 100,000 people on a Friday morning at 10:30 is pretty remarkable. It shows the passion. In all of Australia, I\u2019ve never seen a region or country that had more of a passion for sports, and I think that was demonstrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

MUSTAPHA\u2019S BIG FAN<\/p>\n

Lynch, a Pro Football Hall of Fame safety, lauded Malik Mustapha\u2019s \u201cimpactful football\u201d on back-to-back plays to ruin Washington\u2019s penultimate possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he did the other night is why I\u2019ve always been bias toward the safety position, because it\u2019s hard to take that position out of the game,\u201d Lynch said. \u201cThat sequence at the end of the game, where on the third down, it looks like they have an 8- or 9-yard gain, and what does he do? He doesn\u2019t break stride, makes a perfect form tackle, head up, in the strike zone, hits the guy, and he does not get another yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Mustapha stuffed Jeremy McNichols for no gain at the 17-yard line, setting up fourth-and-3.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThen he shows off his coverage ability covering a receiver and fighting until the bitter end to get that football out,\u201d Lynch added. \u201cHe comes up with a huge pass breakup. That\u2019s the play of the game right there. That sequence encompasses the way Malik is playing. He\u2019s doing everything well and is playing with tremendous execution and physicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

PARTICIPATION REPORT<\/p>\n

Defensive end Mykel Williams returned to practice after getting Wednesday off to rest his surgically repaired right knee, which became sore and sent him to the sideline in the final minute of Sunday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

Nick Bosa (calf) has not practiced since Sept. 24 warmups. Also out Thursday were Samuel, linebackers Luke Gifford and Garrett Wallow; cornerback Upton Stout; and, safeties Marques Sigle and Siran Neal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA CLARA \u2013 Brock Purdy\u2019s layered passes and air-show spirals will target radically different receivers Sunday in Atlanta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[19108,879,949,402,181,752,101,296,103,102,104,106,105,127],"class_list":["post-504677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-49ers-alert","tag-brock-purdy","tag-football","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}