What Aaron Donald facing Brock Purdy means for the Rams-49ers rivalry

Brock Purdy is set to start for the San Francisco 49ers against the Los Angeles Rams for the first time in his career. LA vs San Fran has been and still is one of the biggest rivalries in sports. It transcends football. For the Rams and 49ers specifically there’s past history and recent history. Both franchises have had success and produced Hall of Fame Players during various eras. The 49ers may have more Super Bowls overall, but it is LA of the two teams that has the most recent Lombardi Trophy.

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That can change this year as some observers are considering the San Francisco as a Super Bowl team. The defending NFC West champs have made it to the NFC Championship game the last two years and after their throttling of the Pittsburgh Steelers they seem poised to make another run. It should come as no surprise that SF is favored in this upcoming matchup against their California rival.

It’s very well documented that the 49ers have beaten the Rams in their last several regular season matchups. It’s going to be interesting to see if Brock Purdy will keep up that trend in what might be the biggest rivalry game of his career. Purdy probably has had rivalries in his high school and college days, but as a big a rivalry as LA vs SF? Maybe the 49ers care more about the Seattle Seahawks than LA. Then again Seattle didn’t beat the 49ers in the NFC Championship a couple seasons ago.

The 49ers added Sam Darnold in the offseason, and they must be happy to have him as a backup. They kept Darnold and traded away Trey Lance. It was not always clear what the long term plan for Purdy was, but it does seem that a healthy Purdy has been Kyle Shanahan’s plan for this season. Conveniently we all get to see how Brock does against LA on September 17th. It will be his first time taking on Aaron Donald, and a bunch of other players that DK Metcalf couldn’t name.

It’s only the second week but life in the NFL comes at you fast. The Rams are off to solid start after their own bashing of Seattle. This 49ers game will be even more of a measure to see how ready this Rams team is now.

Is this Rams team ready to play consistent football week in and week out? Can Sean McVay once again beat the 49ers in the regular season? Will Puka Nacua put together another outstanding performance? We’ve got a few days before all of these questions and more are answered. We’ll have to wait until the end of the season and maybe longer to see exactly what the implications of Purdy’s first start against the Rams will be. However this one shakes out, it’ll be another one for the history books.