Rourke goes to 49ers in NFL Draft; first Canadian QB picked since 2001
Published
Kurtis Rourke is headed to San Francisco.
The 49ers have selected the Canadian quarterback in the seventh round of the NFL Draft with the 227th pick.
Rourke was the top-rated high school player in Canada in 2018, but his only NCAA Division I offer came from Ohio University, the same school where his brother, Nathan, had been a record-setting quarterback.
The family connection undoubtedly opened doors for Kurtis, but once in Athens, Ohio, he proved his legitimacy with a breakout 2022 season that included 25 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. A trip to a power conference team by virtue of the transfer portal might have awaited at the end that season. Instead, he tore his ACL in a November game, earning himself a full off-season of rehab.
When his game took a step backward in 2023 coming off the injury, he decided to opt for one more chance to impress the NFL. (Rourke had been granted an extra year of eligibility for the COVID-shortened season of 2020.) Rourke entered the transfer portal, landing at Indiana as the prize recruit of new Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti.
Rourke and Cignetti, who’d come from James Madison University, went from relative unknowns in the big-time world of college football to household names last fall, almost overnight.
Indiana, which had only three winning seasons in the 2000s prior to last season, went 11-2 overall on the season and reached the College Football Playoff.
The only two teams to beat Indiana on the year were Notre Dame and Ohio State, the two finalists in the championship game won by the Buckeyes.
Unfortunately, Rourke struggled badly in both of those losses, at a time where an elite performance would have been a big boost to his NFL draft stock.
When it was confirmed after the season that he had played on a torn ACL, it meant Rourke would have to miss the off-season workouts for NFL teams, although he did attend the combine to meet with teams.
Rourke finished ninth in Heisman voting in his final season in NCAA, where he threw for 3,042 yards with 29 touchdowns and five interceptions in 12 games. In 48 career NCAA games, Rourke threw for 10,693 yards with 79 touchdowns and 21 interceptions.