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They didn't know it at the time. Neither did we. But this golden age of the San Francisco 49ers ended in Super Bowl LVIII as confetti rained on the 49ers in defeat for the second time in four years at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs. Hindsight is 20/20, and it's quite clear that the 2023 season was their swan song regarding their chances of winning a Super Bowl with that group.
This offseason alone, they've lost eight key contributors from that 2023 team. And over the last two offseasons, they've lost more than 20. As the offseason drags on, and the 49ers get further away from the team they once were, one overarching question remains -- what will they do with quarterback Brock Purdy?
You all know the story at this point of Purdy's rise from longshot backup to starting quarterback in the Super Bowl, so I'll spare you the annoyance of having to hear "He was the last pick in the draft" again because I'm quite over hearing it, as well. General manager John Lynch confirmed during his press conference at the NFL Combine that conversations with Purdy have started regarding an extension. However, the 49ers are in a really odd and unprecedented spot in several ways.
Purdy has never been the one credited for their success. He's never been the Batman or Superman of the Justice League-esc rosters the 49ers put on the field every Sunday over the last number of years. At best, he's been Green Lantern -- scrambling around, making things happen off-platform. and getting the ball to one of his several All-World playmakers. At worst, he's been Booster Gold -- the butt of several jokes and not looked at as a serious threat from the quarterback position. Rather, being seen as the trailer being pulled by this massive truck.
You'll definitely find some folks in the 49ers realm who would happily tell you Brock Purdy is better than Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Jesus of Nazareth combined. On the flip side, Brock Purdy could throw a ball 99 yards left-handed while being sacked and blindfolded, and his largest critics would shrug and say "Eh, what else ya got for me?" And while the latter group isn't right either, they are closer to being correct than the former.
Purdy is not an elite starter, let's get that out of the way. He's not Josh Allen. He's not Patrick Mahomes. He's not Joe Burrow. He's not Lamar Jackson. While advanced stats like EPA love Purdy, as he ranked seventh in the NFL in EPA per play, they also loved Jimmy Garoppolo, who ranked ninth in EPA per play in 2019. Of all quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts in 2024, Purdy ranked 25th in catchable pass percentage. His on-target percentage was even lower, ranking 32nd out of 39 qualified quarterbacks.
Now look, it's not all bad, of course. Purdy was also seventh in the league in positive play percentage, third in big-play percentage, and was on the lower end of busted play percentage. But he also had by far his worst season in the same year where Christian McCaffrey was gone for a vast majority of the year. They needed him to step up, and frankly, he didn't. That doesn't make him an awful quarterback but it certainly says he's not a great one -- and the 49ers know that.
You can tell a lot about how a team feels about their starting quarterback by who their backup is. Purdy's backup in 2023 was Sam Darnold, who just led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record and threw 35 touchdowns. His backup now? Mac Jones, a former Pro Bowl quarterback who the 49ers reportedly loved ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft. You think the Buffalo Bills are scouring for high-end backups for Josh Allen? No. Former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator and long-time NFL coach Tom Moore was once asked by Jon Gruden why Peyton Manning's backups don't get reps in practice. "Fellas, if 18 goes down, we're f--ked, and we don't practice f--ked." That's the type of belief teams have in a franchise quarterback. The 49ers don't seem to have that in Purdy, and his list of backups back that up.
The fact is that Purdy hovers somewhere between being the 14th and 18th-best quarterback in the NFL. Which is fine. The 49ers won games with him, and got to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl with him. That said, you don't pay the 14th-18th-best quarterback in the NFL over $45 million per year and you certainly don't give him $60 million per year. Especially when all of his Super Friends are declining, leaving, or getting traded.
The 49ers are also perhaps the only team in the NFL with the power and ability to just say "No, we're not paying you" and trade Purdy. If I were in the shoes of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, I would say "Look, we won with Jimmy Garoppolo. We won with you. We'll win with someone else, too." Purdy isn't the engine that makes this thing go, Shanahan is. Plus, the 49ers are already starting a quasi-rebuild - they may as well go all in, trade Purdy for draft capital, and draft a new quarterback to restart the process. They've done it successfully before. And as long as Shanahan is the guy under the headset, they can do it again.
This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: 49ers need to fully embrace a rebuild and trade Brock Purdy
Continue reading...
This offseason alone, they've lost eight key contributors from that 2023 team. And over the last two offseasons, they've lost more than 20. As the offseason drags on, and the 49ers get further away from the team they once were, one overarching question remains -- what will they do with quarterback Brock Purdy?
You all know the story at this point of Purdy's rise from longshot backup to starting quarterback in the Super Bowl, so I'll spare you the annoyance of having to hear "He was the last pick in the draft" again because I'm quite over hearing it, as well. General manager John Lynch confirmed during his press conference at the NFL Combine that conversations with Purdy have started regarding an extension. However, the 49ers are in a really odd and unprecedented spot in several ways.
Purdy has never been the one credited for their success. He's never been the Batman or Superman of the Justice League-esc rosters the 49ers put on the field every Sunday over the last number of years. At best, he's been Green Lantern -- scrambling around, making things happen off-platform. and getting the ball to one of his several All-World playmakers. At worst, he's been Booster Gold -- the butt of several jokes and not looked at as a serious threat from the quarterback position. Rather, being seen as the trailer being pulled by this massive truck.
You'll definitely find some folks in the 49ers realm who would happily tell you Brock Purdy is better than Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Jesus of Nazareth combined. On the flip side, Brock Purdy could throw a ball 99 yards left-handed while being sacked and blindfolded, and his largest critics would shrug and say "Eh, what else ya got for me?" And while the latter group isn't right either, they are closer to being correct than the former.
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Purdy is not an elite starter, let's get that out of the way. He's not Josh Allen. He's not Patrick Mahomes. He's not Joe Burrow. He's not Lamar Jackson. While advanced stats like EPA love Purdy, as he ranked seventh in the NFL in EPA per play, they also loved Jimmy Garoppolo, who ranked ninth in EPA per play in 2019. Of all quarterbacks with at least 200 attempts in 2024, Purdy ranked 25th in catchable pass percentage. His on-target percentage was even lower, ranking 32nd out of 39 qualified quarterbacks.
Now look, it's not all bad, of course. Purdy was also seventh in the league in positive play percentage, third in big-play percentage, and was on the lower end of busted play percentage. But he also had by far his worst season in the same year where Christian McCaffrey was gone for a vast majority of the year. They needed him to step up, and frankly, he didn't. That doesn't make him an awful quarterback but it certainly says he's not a great one -- and the 49ers know that.
You can tell a lot about how a team feels about their starting quarterback by who their backup is. Purdy's backup in 2023 was Sam Darnold, who just led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record and threw 35 touchdowns. His backup now? Mac Jones, a former Pro Bowl quarterback who the 49ers reportedly loved ahead of the 2021 NFL Draft. You think the Buffalo Bills are scouring for high-end backups for Josh Allen? No. Former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator and long-time NFL coach Tom Moore was once asked by Jon Gruden why Peyton Manning's backups don't get reps in practice. "Fellas, if 18 goes down, we're f--ked, and we don't practice f--ked." That's the type of belief teams have in a franchise quarterback. The 49ers don't seem to have that in Purdy, and his list of backups back that up.
The fact is that Purdy hovers somewhere between being the 14th and 18th-best quarterback in the NFL. Which is fine. The 49ers won games with him, and got to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl with him. That said, you don't pay the 14th-18th-best quarterback in the NFL over $45 million per year and you certainly don't give him $60 million per year. Especially when all of his Super Friends are declining, leaving, or getting traded.
The 49ers are also perhaps the only team in the NFL with the power and ability to just say "No, we're not paying you" and trade Purdy. If I were in the shoes of Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch, I would say "Look, we won with Jimmy Garoppolo. We won with you. We'll win with someone else, too." Purdy isn't the engine that makes this thing go, Shanahan is. Plus, the 49ers are already starting a quasi-rebuild - they may as well go all in, trade Purdy for draft capital, and draft a new quarterback to restart the process. They've done it successfully before. And as long as Shanahan is the guy under the headset, they can do it again.
This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: 49ers need to fully embrace a rebuild and trade Brock Purdy
Continue reading...
