Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the disastrous injury to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy in their loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC conference championship game on Sunday. Charles and Frank analyze how the untimely incident could affect the 49ers offseason plans at the quarterback position. While it seemed Purdy was in line to be the undisputed starter in 2023, the decision becomes a lot less clear if the injury to his elbow is as serious as some fear. While the logical successor would be 2021 third overall pick Trey Lance, Robinson says the 49ers do not have the same confidence in him as they do in Purdy. If San Francisco goes looking for outside hires, is it possible that Tom Brady could return for one last year to finally play for his hometown team?

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FRANK SCHWAB: This is going to be a story. You were in the-- you know, you were talking to them afterwards. What do you think the prognosis is on Purdy here? We're talking UCL, right?

CHARLES ROBINSON: It-- you know, they're gonna do the MRI, but, yeah, it could be-- I mean, this could be pretty significant.

FRANK SCHWAB: Trey Lance, come on down, right--

CHARLES ROBINSON: You know, it's--

FRANK SCHWAB: --I mean, if it's the worst news?

CHARLES ROBINSON: Here's the crazy thing about this too, from being in-- you know, covering last week in San Francisco, covering this week, spending a lot of time talking about the Niners with people. I'm telling you, before this injury, there's zero doubt in my mind-- zero doubt in my mind-- that Purdy was going to be the starting quarterback, however, maybe not in name but that they would say it's an open competition; we'll see what happens here.

I'm just telling you, it might change now because they don't have any other option. They're gonna have to-- look, they're gonna have to work with somebody in the offseason if this is some kind of a long-term injury.

Trey Lance, this might be what it took to get him into a position where they are force fed back into the idea of, we've got to get him-- I'm just telling you, man, I don't know what's going on with Trey Lance in that organization. I can just tell you that the confidence level between Brock Purdy and Trey Lance prior to this game, it was night and day. And that is not good for Trey Lance. I'm telling you right now.

FRANK SCHWAB: I mean, this is bad. I mean, this is Tommy John surgery for Brock Pur-- I don't know if we've seen too many quarterbacks have to deal with that. I think Ben Roethlisberger did his second-to-last year. Took him a year to come back. I mean, this isn't one of those, hey, you'll be ready by training camp type of surgeries for a guy whose sole job is to throw a ball.

CHARLES ROBINSON: No.

FRANK SCHWAB: Like, yeah.

CHARLES ROBINSON: I'm gonna tell you something right now. I'm just gonna say this right now.

You better not clip this. I know you guys will probably clip this.

I think Brady-- I think Tom Brady is sitting there and-- it's like, look, Tampa-- it's either Tampa, or I think Tom is just gonna be like, you know what, man, I'm not doing this. Like I'm not-- I'm probably just gonna be done. You know, what am I gonna do? So it kind of feels like run it back with Tampa, take some time to figure that out, or he's gonna retire.

But, now, I will say this. If Purdy has to have a significant surgery-- now, I don't know if it'd have to be Tommy John, right? Let's say it was something like Tommy John.

FRANK SCHWAB: Sure.

CHARLES ROBINSON: That's a year. He's done, done for a year.

I can't get out of my mind the fact that when Tom played in Levi-- that image of him stopping in the big maintenance dock where they had up all the historical pictures of the Niners and Tom's taking pictures with his phone. It just stuck with me.

And when I walked by that several times when I was there, I was like-- every time I walked by it, I just thought about Brady standing there and being like-- now, you know, you don't just-- it's not a nothing thing. It's not. It's not a--

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, yeah.

CHARLES ROBINSON: --nothing thing just to walk by this and be like-- and I'm not saying this is going to happen, but if Purdy goes out a year-- and I'm telling you, their confidence in Trey Lance is very low right now-- and Tom says, yeah, you know what, I've always wanted to play for the 49ers. I'll run it back with the 49ers.

FRANK SCHWAB: Wow.

CHARLES ROBINSON: It's a dream growing up. You know what? It's on the opposite side of the country from where my kids are going to be in Miami. This really sucks, but, come on, guys, I'm an assassin. I'm a savage. You can say whatever you want-- at the end of the day, this is what defines me. As much as I love my kids, I'm not going to rule it out.

And I will just say that now. It's January 30 at 12:14 AM in the morning. We'll see what happens. Let's wait and see what the prognosis is on Purdy first.

FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, yeah. They're totally clipping that by the way.

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