NFL San Francisco 49ers Odds: Offense In-Depth Betting Analysis

Brock Purdy was the NFL’s “Mr. Irrelevant” in 2022 – the title given to the last player taken in the NFL draft each year. This “tradition” began back in 1976, and as you can imagine, most of the players taken at that spot didn’t make it in the league. A few have gone on to lead lengthy careers. Brock Purdy, though, might be the best “Mr. Irrelevant” ever. He led the San Francisco 49ers to seven wins in seven starts, including the last five wins of the regular season and wins in the wild card and divisional playoff games. He had a shot at taking down Philadelphia on the road in the NFC Championship, but an early elbow injury in that game doomed the 49ers. What will Purdy be able to do coming back from that injury? We will look at that question and more as we break down the San Francisco offense going into 2023. Be sure to read our analysis as you start building your NFL betting plan for the coming season.

NFL Betting News: San Francisco 49ers Offense In-Depth Analysis

After the end of the 49ers’ 2023 minicamp, Purdy headed to Jacksonville with orthopedic specialist Tom Gormley and quarterbacks coach Will Hewlett. Hewlett worked with Purdy during his pre-draft visit in 2022, and Gormley put together throwing programs to help Purdy refine his throwing motion as he rehabs from his UCL tear. Purdy had an operation on March 10 to install an internal brace to repair his UCL. According to 49ers GM John Lynch, Purdy would start throwing 12 weeks after surgery, which would have meant the start of June. However, he healed ahead of schedule and started pain-free throwing in late May. By the time June rolled around, he was throwing three times per week. While Purdy is optimistic about being able to start in Week 1, though, he is hesitant about committing to a hard time frame for his return. One reason for this is that athletes who go through a UCL tear have an elevated risk of re-injury.

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If Purdy isn’t ready to go, the other options on the roster are Trey Lance and Sam Darnold. Lance was actually the starter going into 2022, but an early injury sidelined him for the season, handing the offense back to Jimmy Garoppolo, whom the team had been unable to trade in the off-season. Garoppolo led the team to a terrific start before going down with a foot injury, leaving Purdy, the third-stringer, to guide the team, and he went on his epic run. Darnold came to town on a one-year, $4.5 million deal. Darnold has struggled when given a chance to lead the Jets’ and Panthers’ offenses, but he has a lot more talent around him in San Francisco. Lance has shown a great deal of promise in practice, but we still don’t know what he can do in regular-season action.

Christian McCaffrey returns at the team’s top tailback, and it was the team’s trade that brought him west from Carolina that jump-started the 49ers’ offense. He played 11 regular-season and three postseason games with the 49ers in 2022, with 1,509 yards and 13 touchdowns. In a win over the L.A. Rams last year, he became the first player in 17 years to run, throw and catch a touchdown in a game – the first since LaDainian Tomlinson pulled off the feat for the then-San Diego Chargers in 2005. The team actually put him at quarterback briefly after Purdy’s injury in the NFC Championship, but the Eagles were able to shut down that bizarre version of the Wildcat attack quickly and the team put Purdy back in to hand the ball off.

George Kittle returns as the game’s most electrifying tight end not named Travis Kelce, and wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk are just the top two targets who will be running routes. Samuel has also done a lot of damage carrying the ball; in the last four years, he has 4,012 all-purpose yards from scrimmage, averaging 9.5 yards per target and 6.4 yards per carry.

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San Francisco 49ers Offensive Positions