Thrust into the eye of an injury hurricane, 49ers’ quarterback Brock Purdy is poised to show all the doubters, naysayers and haters he hasn’t ridden the coattails of a handful of exceptional teammates and a system that caters to their strengths.
He’ll play out of his element. Throw across his body to the opposite side of the field. Put on a Superman cape and do things he’s never done before.
Scratch that. Purdy will do nothing of the sort.
If he spent any time thinking about it at all, Purdy would realize that even if he takes the Los Angeles Rams to the shredder Sunday at SoFi Stadium, some will believe he victimized a team that is every bit as injured as the 49ers if not more.
The more Purdy wins, the more obvious it becomes he can’t win in some areas of public opinion. And when Purdy loses, as he did in Week 2 in a 23-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, it validates the beliefs of every so-called expert who refuses to believe one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL was the last pick of the 2022 draft.
It’s a game where the score is predetermined, so Purdy doesn’t participate. His strength has been winning games that matter.
All Purdy did a year ago was a set a franchise record with 4,280 yards passing, lead two come-from-behind wins in the playoffs against Green Bay and Detroit and give the 49ers the lead three times in the second half and overtime of a 25-22 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
Despite all that and the 2022 season that preceded it, the 49ers’ game against the Rams in some quarters will serve as some sort of referendum on whether or not Purdy is an “elite” NFL quarterback.
Christian McCaffrey will be joined by Deebo Samuel on the sidelines, Purdy’s first game where he didn’t have at least one of them to lean on. Tight end George Kittle was downgraded to out Saturday with a hamstring strain and won’t play. First-round draft pick Ricky Pearsall Jr. will miss at least two more games after miraculously surviving a gunshot wound to the chest in Union Square on Sept. 3.
OK Brock, let’s see what you’ve got.
If all this is weighing on Purdy in terms of his place in the NFL’s quarterback hierarchy, he does a good job hiding it. He didn’t get this far giving way to anxiety and skepticism.
“It sucks not having your guys, so it’s like, `How can we figure out to get the ball to other guys?” Purdy said. “I still have to do my job in terms of my reads and progressions and as a quarterback handling situations, being as efficient as I can be regardless of who is in. That’s where my mindset is at with this game.”
It’s his mindset every game. Purdy’s approach as the face of the franchise remains understated and analytical. He’s an extension of coach Kyle Shanahan and while he can create plays with his feet and occasionally make something out of nothing, Purdy at his best is getting the ball out of his hand and being a leader.
Brock Purdy (13) won’t have Deebo Samuel (1) in the lineup Sunday when the 49ers visit the Los Angeles Rams. Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group
“We never ask Brock to really do too much,” Shanahan 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. Things you always try to do is not turn it over, but nothing really changes when you’re missing guys. Game plans can sometimes change, but not what you ask the quarterback to do.”
It’s the same thing Rams coach Sean McVay is preaching to Matthew Stafford. Stafford, 36, is everything Purdy is not. He’s got one of the best throwing arms the game has ever seen, a former No. 1 overall draft pick who spent a dozen years in Detroit and was once coveted by Shanahan to replace Jimmy Garoppolo until the Rams got him first.
Stafford won’t have wide receivers Cooper Kupp or Puka Nacua and his offensive line is in shambles.
“I just want him to be himself, trust his teammates and play to the best of his ability,” McVay told reporters. “He’s going to do a great job of leading and influencing positive change to play as well as they can just way he moves. That’s what we’re looking for from him.”
While preaching efficiency and precision, Purdy doesn’t have much time for the reams of analytics which suggest his offense has some problems through two games. He’s too respectful to show outright disdain, but when it was suggested to Purdy that analytics indicated his receivers were getting minimal separation from defenders, he politely rejected the idea.
“I have no idea what those metrics are,” Purdy said. “It comes down to execution between the both of us. Being where they need to be and layering the ball and throwing the ball accurately, time and time again. Whatever the metrics are showing, I don’t really know if I believe any of that. I think it’s about me being efficient, them doing their job and being on the same page.”
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Stafford has a Super Bowl ring, and since he got it with the Rams, a franchise that had never won the big one, he’s off the hook. Purdy doesn’t have one, and he’ll never get four like Joe Montana.
But those were different times, never to be repeated. Purdy is everything the 49ers want in a quarterback in a Shanahan offense. Like it or not, he’ll be rewarded with megadeal that could approach $60 million per year in the offseason barring a physical catastrophe.
“All I know about Brock is that since he’s been here all he’s done is prove himself right and a lot of doubters wrong,” general manager John Lynch told KNBR-680. “He’s been a really, really special player for us and will continue to be. He’s a guy that sets the tone for us and he has this week in practice. I’m never worried about Brock Purdy.”
Lynch and 49ers will leave that to the legion of Purdy poopers who can’t seem to trust their own eyes.
