Why Nathan Rourke's brother could soon move up the NFL depth chart
It’s been a pretty decent week for the Rourke family.
Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke just helped BC win their fifth game in a row, completing 88 per cent of his passes in a 45-24 thumping of the winless Ottawa Redblacks.
While Nathan continues to tear apart the CFL, his younger brother is making waves down south.
Kurtis Rourke enjoyed a solid training camp with the San Francisco 49ers, one year after being drafted in the seventh round, 225th overall. Kurtis missed all of last season as he recovered from a torn ACL at the end of his college career.
He played in San Francisco’s first preseason game, parlaying a strong training camp into a solid showing against the Tennessee Titans on Aug. 13. Kurtis completed 12 of 14 passes for 101 yards and a touchdown.
However, the Oakville, Ont., native injured his ribs in that game and missed the next two weeks of preseason action.
He was competing with Adrian Martinez for the third-string quarterback job on the 49ers. Despite not playing in their final two preseason games, Kurtis officially made the 49ers roster over the weekend after the team cut Martinez.
With Kurtis making San Francisco’s roster out of camp, he’s already accomplished something that Nathan has yet to do.
Nathan never made an NFL roster out of camp. He was surprisingly cut and placed on the Jacksonville Jaguars’ practice squad after a buzzworthy preseason in 2023. He was signed to the team temporarily at points, but those stints lasted a matter of days.
Kurtis Rourke was drafted at the tail end of the 2025 NFL Draft. (Amador Blondet-Imagn Images)
Unlike Nathan, Kurtis seems to have earned the trust of the 49ers staff.
And if there is a team to trust a promising seventh-round quarterback, it’s the 49ers, who employ Mr. Irrelevant, Brock Purdy.
But could Rourke soon be more than just a fringe roster player?
“We saw a lot of talent, that he was probably better than a seventh-round pick,” 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said after Kurtis’ first preseason game.
“But he had an injury in college that we knew he wasnât going to be able to play much his first year, so his draft value maybe fell a little bit. But evaluating, we saw a guy who was an NFL thrower, who was very bright, who had the right size and who had the chance to be a player.”
NFL Insider Nick Wagoner recently theorized that the emergence of Kurtis gives San Francisco the option of trading backup Mac Jones to bolster the defensive line.
Regardless of whether a trade this season happens, Jones is a free agent at the end of the year.
That opens the door for Kurtis to do something that Nathan never accomplished: get snaps during NFL game action.