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We’ve all heard the talk, in the wake of injuries to two of the San Francisco 49ers’ essential skill players, about what supposedly needs to happen next.
Third-year quarterback Brock Purdy, we’re told, must step up and carry the team — to keep the 49ers from falling into an early season hole, and to prove he deserves a massive contract extension in 2025.
It’s the type of toxic advice that runs counter to Purdy’s actual mission, and I have a four-word rebuttal.
Get off Brock’s jock.
Purdy is already one of the league’s best quarterbacks, and he’s absolutely ascending. He’ll get the bag after the season — Kyle Shanahan decided that long ago, perhaps even before Christmas of 2022 — and by then it will be obvious that he deserves every penny.
In the meantime, as the Niners prepare for Sunday’s showdown with the injury-ravaged Rams at SoFi Stadium (aka Levi’s South), the absolute worst thing Purdy could do would be to overextend; to force things; to try to do too much.
Purdy’s is shooting up like NVIDIA stock, and his ability to exercise restraint is a big reason why. Different star quarterbacks have different superpowers. He may not make spectacular, athletically amazing plays like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes, but Purdy — via ultra-quick processing, hyper-accurate and touch-laced passes and smart decision-making — stands out in his own way.
This means that the burden of Christian McCaffrey’s stint on injured reserve and Deebo Samuel’s debilitating calf injury falls on Shanahan, who’ll have to adjust his gameplan and play-calling strategies to account for the absence of two of the NFL’s most versatile and potent playmakers.
Purdy’s job remains the same: Receive those plays and execute them at the highest level, regardless of who else is on the field.
“I just want Brock to keep doing what he’s been doing,” confirmed tight end George Kittle, one of the other elite targets, along with wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who’ll be asked to help fill the void. “You know, continue to lead the team, run the plays that Coach Shanahan calls and throw it to the open guy. That’s all I need from him. I don’t need anything special beyond that.”
That’s Purdy’s plan, too — which is one of the very things that makes him special. At 24, he already possesses the maturity of a grizzled veteran, and he’s very good about not making his very taxing job any harder than it has to be.
“He’s just got to go out and be Brock Purdy,” said star middle linebacker Fred Warner. “He’s one of the best players in the game for a reason.”
Not forcing things is one of the reasons Purdy threw for a 49ers-record 4,280 yards in 2023 while leading the league with a 113.0 passer rating — the 14th-highest single-season mark in NFL history.
Yeah, he’s already that dude.
Around here, most people understand that. Around the country, not so much. Because Purdy was the last player drafted in 2022, and because his physical traits aren’t as overwhelming as many of his peers, many fans and media members have a hard time accepting his excellence.
When Purdy puts up big numbers — two games in he’s leading the NFL with 550 passing yards — much of the credit tends to go to the weapons around him, and to Shanahan’s shrewd schematic acumen. You know, the whole “system quarterback” nonsense.
On Wednesday, I asked Shanahan if he felt a need to guard against his quarterback trying to do too much when players such as McCaffrey and Samuel are sidelined. If you’re convinced the coach’s smarts are responsible for Purdy’s productivity, you might want to pay attention to his answer.
“We never ask Brock to really do too much,” he said. “We ask him to do the play that’s called. If nothing’s there, what are your options after that? You scramble, you throw things away. Sometimes you take a sack. (A thing) you always try to do is not turn it over, but nothing really changes when you’re missing guys. Gameplan can sometimes change, but not what you ask the quarterback to do.”
Purdy’s backup, Brandon Allen, understands this better than most: “When (Purdy) needs to extend and make plays, he will, but for the most part he just does such a good job of going through his progressions, seeing who’s open and throwing to the open guy, no matter who that guy is. He’s not thinking about the rest of it.”
If you’re wondering whether Purdy’s thinking about things the right way, go back and read the column I wrote after our interview at the start of training camp. The term “bloody mindset” got a lot of attention, but Purdy’s definition of that had more to do with ruthless efficiency: converting third downs, executing at a high level and closing out games. Tom Brady was the role model he cited, rather than one of his rivals with eye-popping arm talent or speed.
I chronicled Brady’s rise from an early vantage point, and I see some similarities in approach and temperament.
Granted, comparing anyone to a seven-time Super Bowl winner and all-time great is a fruitless endeavor. That said, my advice to you is this: Underestimate Purdy at your own peril.
In the wake of the 49ers’ 23-17 defeat to the Vikings on Sunday, let the cynics crow that Purdy was outdueled by his former backup, Sam Darnold.
That’s one way of looking at it, but here’s another: As the Rams prepare to face Purdy on Sunday, the man impersonating him on their scout team is one Jimmy Garoppolo.
Over the long haul, I’d take Purdy over almost anyone else currently playing the position. More important, so would Shanahan. The debate is over; it’s time to enjoy the ride.
In his first start, Purdy got the best of Brady, a San Mateo native performing in front of friends and family. In his first game of 2024, he defeated former Cal star Aaron Rodgers, a four-time MVP.
And in his final home game of last season, in front of another all-time great (by the name of Joe), Purdy did something Montanaesque, leading the 49ers to a stirring second-half comeback victory over the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game, and a berth in the Super Bowl which likely won’t be his last.
He’s not perfect, but he’s preternaturally grounded. Given the situation, I expect him to bring his “A” game against the Rams — “I think we’ve all got to step up,” Aiyuk said — but not to try to be Superman.
Plenty of outsiders may be calling for him to do so, but it’s as if Purdy has been wearing noise-canceling headphones. On Wednesday, he got word from a 49ers PR official that he might get some questions thrown his way about having to carry the team, and he basically shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t even care about any of that,” he told me. “I’m just gonna do my thing.”
He already does it better than almost anyone on the planet, and he’s getting better.
Let’s all get a grip — and get off Brock’s jock.
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Which first-year HOF candidates will be inducted into the 2025 class?
Candidate | Odds | Probability |
Eli Manning | 1/5 | 83.3% |
Terrell Suggs | 1/3 | 75% |
Luke Kuechly | 1/1 | 50% |
Adam Vinatieri | 2/1 | 33.3% |
Marshal Yanda | 3/1 | 25% |
Marshawn Lynch | 8/1 | 11.1% |
Joe Staley | 9/1 | 10% |
Darren Sproles | 10/1 | 9.1% |
Vernon Davis | 12/1 | 7.7% |
Antoine Bethea | 16/1 | 5.9% |
Travis Frederick | 16/1 | 5.9% |
Demaryius Thomas | 20/1 | 4.8% |
Earl Thomas | 20/1 | 4.8% |
Ryan Kalil | 20/1 | 4.8% |
Aqib Talib | 25/1 | 3.8% |
Delanie Walker | 33/1 | 2.9% |
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That has to be the greatest baseball game of all time,” Gavin Lux said. “It has to be.”
Ohtani singlehandedly pummeled the Miami Marlins on Thursday. He went 6-for-6, slugged three home runs, drove in 10 runs and swiped two bases — in a game that clinched a postseason berth.
“I didn’t even realize he was 6-for-6,” Mookie Betts said. “What we see is like expected. It’s crazy that he lives up to those types of expectations. But that’s also what makes you speechless.”
And had Ohtani not gotten thrown out trying to leg out a triple in his third at-bat, he’d have added his second career cycle, too.
No player in baseball history had hit three homers and stolen multiple bases in a game, until Ohtani did it on Thursday. No player had collected more total bases (17) in a multi-steal game, smashing the previous mark of 11 from the likes of Kirk Gibson and Braggo Roth. No player since at least 1901 had collected at least five hits, hit multiple home runs and stolen multiple bases in the same game.
According to OptaSTATS, no player since 1920 has ever had a 10-RBI day, a six-hit day, a five extra-base hit day, a three-homer day, and a multi-steal day within their career. Ohtani crammed all that production into a single Thursday afternoon during a 20-4 thrashing of the Marlins.
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