Things could not have gone much better for the San Francisco 49ers in the return of Brock Purdy.
He was not at his best, but the team did not need him to be. He still flashed enough of a ceiling, and the team looked strong enough around him to envision this offense firing all on cylinders. However, there is still one more piece missing if they truly want to fire in a way that makes them Super Bowl contenders.
The biggest question left is Brandon Aiyuk. Ricky Pearsall returned with Brock Purdy, and while he did not record any stats, the amount of snaps that he did play has fans thinking he is going to be just fine.
Ben Bartch has been playing a little more than a third of the last two games, but he is close to being a full-time starter. With those two in the mix, the 49ers have the starters on paper at every position aside from Aiyuk.
The defense is not going to get healthier, so the only way for San Francisco to make a run is to have the best offense in the NFL. It is possible to achieve this, but it is going to be much harder without Aiyuk.
The 49ers speculated on opening his practice window a few weeks ago. However, we are now onto Week 12, and he has yet to practice. The practice window is three weeks, and it usually allows the player one week to ramp up and then one week to get game-ready. The third week may be for any complications that occurred during the second week.
So, at this point, it is fair to say that Aiyuk is still at least two weeks away from returning. If Aiyuk returned to practice this week, he may play in the Cleveland Browns game. Then, he can get some game action and head into a bye week to rest up.
However, the most likely case at this point is that Aiyuk is out through the bye week. He would have to have a great week of practice this week to return, and that appears unlikely as of now. The team is not going to rush him back for a road game in a potentially frigid Cleveland air, knowing that a bye week and a home stretch are left.
The 49ers will likely sit through the bye and hope that he returns in Week 15. Still, that is a bit off from the initial projections, and even that may be an optimistic timeline as of now.
Mike Johnson parlayed a 661-game NHL career that included stops with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Phoenix Coyotes, Montreal Canadiens, and St. Louis Blues into a broadcasting career with TSN.
Johnson has been the color commentator for numerous NHL and IIHF broadcasts, but recently, he has been the primary commentator for the Maple Leafs’ regional TSN broadcasts. Unsurprisingly, given his ties to so many Atlantic Division rivals, Johnson doesn’t have too many good things to say about the Boston Bruins.
That continued on a recent NHL Network hit, where he dropped the take that two-time Stanley Cup Champion and 1000-point getter Brad Marchand doesn’t have a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame. While criticizing the Bruins on the Maple Leafs broadcasts makes sense as the regional guy, taking such a bizarre stance about Marchand’s Hall of Fame status is a bridge too far.
Winning two Stanley Cups, recording 1000 points, winning 2 World Junior Gold Medals, scoring the championship-winning goal in the 2016 World Cup, and playing an essential role on Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off team when many said he shouldn’t have made it, isn’t enough of a resume for Johnson. Neither was scoring two goals in the Game 7 clincher in 2011 or recording 20 points in 23 games for the Florida Panthers’ run last postseason.
Instead, Johnson believes that players like Keith Tkachuk and Curtis Joseph should be in the Hall over Marchand. Tkachuk, whose trophy case includes one Maurice Richard Trophy and a silver medal with Team USA, and Joseph, who was a Vezina Trophy finalist on a couple of occasions, and had a front-row seat to Martin Brodeur winning him an Olympic Gold Medal in 2002. Coincidentally, both were also former teammates of the non-biased Mike Johnson.
Johnson finished his explanation by saying that today he wouldn’t put Marchand in the Hall of Fame, but talk to him in three years and it’ll be a yes. My question would be what else could Marchand possibly achieve to make him worthy in Johnson’s eyes? An Olympic Gold Medal is one of the only things missing from the trophy case, which he might get a chance to win in a few months.
If Johnson was attempting to generate some clickbait from this take, it worked, but sometimes a biased take has to come under scrutiny. The good news is that his fans in Toronto will love the take after years of watching the man who doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame dominate their team in the postseason.