San Francisco 49ers’ general manager John Lynch saw Canadian quarterback Kurtis Rourke play live against Ohio State in late November.
Lynch selected the Indiana University star in the 2025 NFL Draft despite viewing by far his worst performance in 2024 with the Hoosiers in person. Rourke completed 8-of-18 passes for 68 yards in a 38-15 loss to the eventual national champion Buckeyes.
“Yes, saw Rourke. He’s a guy that we really liked. I think really displayed his toughness, played a lot of the year on a partially torn ACL. It was a previous ACL that was done in 2022, a re-tear but toughed it out and played through it, had surgery after the season,” Lynch said.
“We took him with the understanding that he’s not going to likely be cleared until training camp, but we felt like there was a lot of talent, a lot of ability. The guy plays the game the right way and you can’t have enough good quarterbacks. Wanted to add him to the mix and we’re able to do it in the seventh round.”
The Oakville, Ont. native played through a major right knee injury during his final NCAA season with the Hoosiers. He led Indiana to an 11-2 record and a spot in the College Football Playoff. The graduate transfer completed 69.4 percent of his passes for 3,042 yards with 29 touchdowns versus five interceptions.
“Love the size, love how he throws, love how he plays the position, especially watching him this year. I don’t think it was a coincidence how good of a year they had with the type of quarterback they had and he did it the whole year with a broken finger, a torn ACL, and still was really, really impressive,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said.
The 24-year-old Rourke had ACL revision surgery on January 8 and could be healthy in time for training camp in the summer. Rehab left him watching the NFL Draft process from the sidelines and took away opportunities to showcase his talents at the East-West Shrine Bowl, NFL Combine, and Indiana University pro day.
“We’re in a situation where getting a guy with a torn ACL — he probably won’t be cleared by training camp, it’ll be close — it’s not an issue for us because we have Brock [Purdy] and Mac [Jones] and love Tanner [Mordecai] too. I thought it was a very good, valuable pick for us for a guy who might not be ready for another year,” Shanahan said.
“I think he’s about seven months out because he got it done after the season. We’re in a situation where we could take him and I think he would have gone a lot higher if he was healthy.”
The six-foot-four, 220-pound Rourke was selected in the seventh round, 227th overall and he wants to be cleared as soon as possible.
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