Brock Purdy, the 22-year-old starting rookie quarterback, headed onto the football field in that Week 13 matchup against the Miami Dolphins and looked in complete control of the San Francisco 49ers offense. He took charge after replacing injured quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, and that didn't change in the two games that followed.
"I feel like, one, my goal coming in was to earn the respect of the guys that have been here," Purdy told reporters on Wednesday. "And as a rookie, you can't just come in and be a rah-rah guy and try to act like you're the guy already, so I just try to do my part, pay my dues and earn my stripes. And that still hasn't changed.
"I still have to do that kind of stuff as a rookie now, but my whole thing was, man, I'm going to go in and support the quarterbacks, compete and push them to make them better. And if my opportunity comes, then obviously make the most of it. And I feel like the guys have seen that, the older guys have seen that, and they respect that."
Purdy has helped keep the 49ers' win streak, now at seven games, alive. He has the respect of his teammates. Armed with a dominant defense and several playmaking weapons on offense, the Niners know they can go far this season, even with the last overall pick in this year's draft lined up under center.
"He just worked so hard," fullback Kyle Juszczyk told NBC Sports Bay Area's Matt Maiocco this week. "You never really heard him. There's a thing with when new guys come into the building that you never want to hear someone talking too much until they've gone out there and they've really shown it and proved it, and you can see what kind of gamer they are. And that's exactly what Brock did.
"He wasn't that guy in the locker room that's just yapping all the time, that loud rookie. He was just a guy that kept his nose down, he worked really hard, and he played really well. And honestly, that's where you get everyone's respect, is how you go out there and play, and how you prepare. The way we've seen him prepare each week, even when he wasn't the starter, that's how you gain guys' respect. When you get your opportunity, and you go take advantage of it, you can't not respect that."
Juszczyk admits that Purdy really proved he could play in the NFL during the preseason. His teammates didn't expect him to play much in those exhibition matchups. However, the rookie got work in each of the 49ers' three preseason games.
"I think each game, he went out there, and you just gained more and more respect because you could see what kind of gamer he was," Juszczyk shared.
When 49ers players saw Garoppolo go down against the Miami Dolphins, they understood the injury might impact their Super Bowl ambitions. Garoppolo was the second starting quarterback lost for the season following Trey Lance's Week 2 ankle injury. Now, they were down to the team's third quarterback on the depth chart.
"But because, so quickly, Brock stepped in there and played so well, you never get to that point of, 'Oh, the season's over.'" Juszczyk said. "I think he played so well in that game that it gave us a lot of hope, and we got that hope quickly. ... And then, we're like, 'OK, there's a possibility here we can still do everything that we want,' but at that point, we just feel like it's a possibility.
"Then he goes out there and continues to prove it game after game, that I feel like we're right back to where we have full confidence that we can do everything that we had planned."
Over the past three games, Purdy has completed 69 percent of his passes for 612 yards, six touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 108.8. Winning games hasn't been placed solely on his shoulders, though. The 49ers are playing their best football on offense and defense and remain a favorite to reach—and possibly even win—the Super Bowl.
