Mac Jones Reaggravates Knee Injury During 49ers’ Win Amid Brock Purdy Toe Rehab

Add another injury to the pile for the San Francisco 49ers.

Quarterback Mac Jones, already serving in relief duty for the injured Brock Purdy, told reporters after Sunday’s 16-15 win over the Arizona Cardinals that he reaggravated the same PCL sprain that hampered him during training camp.

“I had a little injury that I just re-aggravated,” Jones told reporters. “I’m good. I took the brace off because I wasn’t moving around very well, and then I put it back on after that. I felt like it affected my play a little bit, which I was disappointed about. … Anytime you’re fighting through stuff, I know everybody has my back. The offensive line did a great job this game keeping me clean for the most part. Just to be able to come together at the end and finish like we talked about on the sideline, like, ‘Hey, we got nothing to lose. Let’s go get it.’ The players made plays, so it was awesome, to be honest.”

Jones, 27, has been called upon in the past two weeks with Purdy sidelined and has responded, throwing for 563 yards, four touchdowns and an interception while taking four sacks and completing 66.3 percent of his passes. He had to do so on Sunday without key offensive playmakers like George Kittle, Jauan Jennings and Brandon Aiyuk, all out injured.

Granted, the hapless New Orleans Saints and the erratic Cardinals helped his cause in the two wins. But the Niners needed Jones to help keep them afloat the past two weeks and he more than fulfilled his duty, driving the team down the field in the final 1:46 to get into field goal range for the game-winning kick.

“I’ve failed a lot in that situation in the NFL, to be honest, and I just know the guys had my back,” he told reporters about that final drive. “And like we talked about on the sidelines, ‘Let’s go out there and rip it.’ One play at a time and erase everything that had happened. … I’ve had a lot of potential game-winning drives in my career, and a lot of quarterbacks have. I’ve done well in them, and I’ve done pretty bad in them, too, so I really was just motivated to change the narrative. And this team, I feel like they have my back.”

Jones handled his backup duties with aplomb. Now, however, the beat-up 49ers will be hoping to get Purdy and several other players back and healthy.

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