Who Should I Start? Brock Purdy or Michael Penix Jr.

Wednesday, October 8, 5:07 PM

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (toe) did not take part in the first practice of the week on Wednesday, according to head coach Kyle Shanahan. Purdy suffered a turf-toe injury in the season opener and missed Weeks 2 and 3 before returning in Week 4, only to aggravate his toe. The 25-year-old missed his third game of the year in last Thursday's surprising upset win over the Los Angeles Rams. Purdy is progressing from his toe injury, but he remains week-to-week and could certainly miss his fourth game of the year in Week 6 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is definitely going to need to return to practice in the next two days to even have a shot at playing on Sunday. Mac Jones (knee) has been banged up himself early this year, but he should be able to make a fourth start against Tampa if Purdy is ruled out later this week.

Tuesday, September 30, 12:21 PM

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. got back on track in Sunday's 34-27 win over the Commanders, completing 20 of his 26 passes for 313 yards and two scores. He did throw one interception as well and was sacked once. The former first-rounder's 90.5 QBR for the game was a solid increase from the 71.3 rating he had going into the contest, and there was a marked improvement in the second-year quarterback's average yards per pass attempt, going from 6.1 in Weeks 1-3 to 12.0 in Week 4 (the highest of any QB). While it was a great bounce-back performance after two down weeks, the 25-year-old draws Buffalo in Week 5 after the team comes out of their bye, and the Bills have limited opposing passers to 125.8 yards per game thus far, which is the fewest yards passing per game in the entire NFL, so fantasy managers may want to look elsewhere for streaming options the next time Penix takes the field.