What does Brock Purdy have to do, exactly?
In which we yet again litigate whether the baby faced assassin is good
On Sunday, the 49ers won their second game of the season against division rival Seattle, with QB Brock Purdy throwing for a career high 368 yards and 2 TDs. The prior week he led a true beatdown of the Philadelphia Eagles, throwing for four TDs, most of which came on run after the catch. This led to some folks who don’t necessarily watch Purdy all the time to say that he is a product of his truly elite receiving corps, that anyone can toss short dump offs and screen passes.
And this has led to the one constant question through the season for pundits, fans and haters all alike - is Brock Purdy REALLY this good?
Statistically, he’s having an elite season thus far - this isn’t really debatable. But does that mean HE is an elite QB? A very good QB? Or, is he just doing what any decent quarterback would do in this system, and on this team?
Personally I don’t know many 49ers fans who argue that he’s truly elite YET, that he’s in the same category as a Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen or Jalen Hurts. (Though, again this season, he’s clearly played better than Mahomes and Hurts thus far.) My own argument is that he’s a top-10 quarterback right now, and in terms of HOW he plays I’d rather have him behind center on my team than some quarterbacks the media and fans just anoint as “elite” from the jump.
Surely, Purdy IS helped by this team as well as an elite playcaller and system managed by head coach and OC Kyle Shanahan. (Though many of these commenters also say he’s behind the one of the best offensive lines in the league and brother, let me tell you that’s incorrect. Trent Williams is incredible, and Aaron Banks is better than average - everyone else is, simply, not.)
But this Sunday, Purdy threw downfield quite a bit. He dropped in a deep pass to Deebo Samuel that was about 45 yards in the air and hit him perfectly in stride (see video below). He hit Brandon Aiyuk multiple times far downfield as well as George Kittle on a sideline pass that went about 25 yards before Kittle took it another 20 for a TD. The Kittle throw was particularly outstanding, a really difficult throw over defenders - Kittle wasn’t wide open but again, Purdy hit him in stride in an exceptionally tight window.
When folks looked at what Purdy did against Philadelphia, they ignored that the Eagles were absolutely hurting in the middle of their defense, with injuries to key linebackers, and that’s what Shanahan and Purdy exploited, mercilessly.
After the Seattle game, I saw numerous comments on various social media stating that “any quarterback” could throw the deep bomb to Deebo Samuel, which is just on its face absolute horseshit.
The other huge point is that Deebo was not the primary target on that play, and Purdy improvised. From Matt Barrows on The Athletic:
Samuel, meanwhile, wasn’t the first option on the play. The offensive line, however, gave Purdy an unusually long time to throw. He said he noticed [safety Jamal] Adams was “sort of flat-footed” and knew Samuel would get past him.
“I was like, ‘We can get over the top here,’” Purdy said. “And so, I took my drop. He wasn’t necessarily the No. 1 guy in the read. It was actually Jauan (Jennings). But the way Jamal Adams came down, I was like, ‘This could be a big one.’ So (I) let it rip and let Deebo get under it.”
Said Samuel: “Whenever he sees something, he’s just gonna let it go. And you could see – I really wasn’t running 100 mph. But once I looked back and saw him getting ready to throw it, I knew I had to speed up.”
That does not sound like the stuff of a game manager. I was a HUGE advocate for Jimmy Garoppolo, as longtime readers of this substack can attest. But he would never have made this throw, let alone drop it right into Deebo’s outreached hands in full stride. He just wouldn’t and likely couldn’t. (Indeed, it’s exactly the kind of pass he missed Emmanuel Sanders in during the 2019 Super Bowl because the only way he could do it was to throw as hard as he could and blew it 10 yards too long.)
Offensive tackle Trent Williams, who might top the list of “guys I wouldn’t want to openly disagree with,” doesn’t want to hear it. From Marcus Thompson, also on The Athletic:
“He can make every throw. He literally can make every throw, and you can’t show a throw that he can’t make. … I don’t get why people say he’s a system quarterback who’s gotta show you more. Because no system quarterback makes tight-window throws before they’re there. Throwing people open. Putting the ball into a window and trusting his receiver to get there. Layering balls over linebackers who are in good position and still getting the ball over their head, getting it to the playmakers.”
The “system quarterback” argument is perhaps the one that makes the least sense. There’s some thought that ANY quarterback can thrive under Shanahan, and certainly it’s clear he made Jimmy G look better than his skill set. He made Nick Mullens look pretty good in a few spot starts before he fell back down to earth. The fact that guys like Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan are considered the prototypical Shanahan QB suggest that any statue who can read the field would thrive in this system. We know that’s not true, but there will be doubters.
Again, Trent Williams has a response:
So, let’s expand the question – if Purdy IS a product of his system, why isn’t Tua Tagovailova? Or Rookie of the Year lock C.J. Stroud? Because both of them run offenses that are the same scheme, with offensive coordinators straight from Kyle Shanahan’s team. While I do hear some folks quibble about Tua, he’s squarely in the MVP race with Purdy as is Stroud.
After 13 games, Purdy is second in the league in passing yards. He’s almost certainly going to be the first 49ers quarterback to throw for over 4,000 yards in 23 years. (It’s only happened three times, twice by Steve Young and once by Jeff Garcia. The game has changed, for sure.) After 13 games, he’s already thrown for the 13th most yards in any season by a 49ers QB.
What’s clearly STILL at play here is that he fights against his draft position and his frame. He doesn’t LOOK like the prototypical quarterback or even athlete. Guys like Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence look like Marvel superheroes, and even though Purdy can toss it downfield quite well (see: Seahawks, Seattle) he doesn’t LOOK like he can. He looks like a youth pastor. His draft pedigree continues to work against him. Someone asked if Trey Lance, the 3rd overall pick by the 49ers who flamed out so badly he is now a Cowboys backup, if he was doing EXACTLY the same thing as Purdy, if folks would feel differently. And they very much would! He looks like a better athlete (because he is), his draft pedigree shows off this talent, etc.
Meanwhile, Purdy just keeps winning and making his (incredibly talented) teammates better. Of course, they’re going to say things like Deebo and Trent did here – he’s their quarterback! But they’re also not wrong. The only folks who “need to see more” are people who are intentionally seeing what they want to. Time will tell.
I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out which elite/legendary QB became that way without an elite receiving corps, running back, and coach. Joe Montana? Steve Young? Terry Bradshaw? Dan Marino? Phil Simms? John Elway? Payton Manning? What's his face, Tom Brady?
Let's use Hall of Famer (yeah, we got it Joe Buck) Troy Aikman. He was a slightly above average quarterback, statistically. The only reason he's in the HoF and on TV every week instead of giving motivational speeches to insurance agents in Canton is because he had Emmit Smith and Michael Irvin on his team and played in Jimmy Johnson's system. They had a pretty good defense, too. But, they won Super Bowls, mostly against a similarly average Jim Kelly.
My guess is he (and that other Manning dude, too) watches Purdy every week and thinks to himself, "Wow, I wish I could have made those throws in my day."
Brock Purdy is the real deal. We'll be talking about him for years to come.
Something I like about people hating on our Niner QB. It never hurts for motivation when you have something to prove. The ‘system’ Qb argument is always a bit strange to me. May be semantics. But system qbs are who win. Because they understand the playbook and the skills of their teammates. When your super smart draft mooks see a college-graduating Mac Jones, and love his arm and size and where he came from, and then he gets in the NFL and can’t move a team downfield. Well, he’s not a bust because he’s a bad athlete suddenly or a terrible person. Perhaps his confidence is shot. Perhaps he can’t understand the offensive scheme. Whatever it is, he certainly can’t handle the system. Pats fans would shit their pants right now for a system guy.