The 49ers opted to take a quarterback with their first pick in Round 7 of the 2025 NFL Draft, Kurtis Rourke.
Was it the late great Bill Walsh who championed drafting a quarterback every year no matter what?
Well, if the San Francisco 49ers are subscribing to that theory, they just made sure to follow it with their first pick in Round 7 of the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Niners spent the bulk of their picks in the 2025 draft on the defense, reinforcing what had been a downtrodden unit the year prior and listening to coordinator Robert Saleh's requests. With a handful of offensive selections made, too, one didn't exactly think a quarterback was a necessity.
Especially with Brock Purdy poised to be under center for a long, long time.
That said, San Francisco's quarterback room in 2025 will look drastically different behind Purdy than it did a year ago, particularly after Brandon Allen and Joshua Dobbs' free-agent departures, and the 49ers just took one more step toward fixing that.
49ers draft QB Kurtis Rourke in Round 7
With the No. 227 overall pick, though, San Francisco grabbed Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke to beef up the crop of signal-callers heading into training camp.
Rourke, 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, played six years at the collegiate level, the previous five at Ohio before going to Indiana. Over the course of his career, he completed 67 percent of his passes while leading NCAA with 3,257 passing yards and 25 touchdowns in 2023 at Ohio.
A quarterback who doesn't mind absorbing hits, Rourke can also extend plays well with his legs, not unlike Purdy.
Purdy, another seventh-round pick, ascended in unlikely fashion to become one of the faces of the franchise.
While Rourke has a long ways to go (and obstacles, too), merely getting a shot in a quarterback-friendly offense might be all he needs to make a dent in a long NFL career.