When Brock Purdy stepped into the huddle on December 4, 2022, George Kittle wasn't sure what to expect. The All-Pro tight end knew they had no choice but to find out. The San Francisco 49ers had just lost their second quarterback of the season. Trey Lance suffered a season-ending ankle injury during Week 2, and Jimmy Garoppolo had just gone to the locker room with what would be revealed to be a broken foot.
Purdy it was ... probably for the remainder of the season.
"I knew he was good because of the way he was practicing against our defense," Kittle admitted to Jennifer Lee Chan during an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area's "49ers Talk" podcast. "You'd see him, he'd have these highlight throws against our awesome defense. I'd be like, 'All right, well, hey, worst case scenario, he's not going to be bad.' And hey, he turned out [to be] pretty good."
Reflecting on that game, Kittle remembers that Purdy had confidence and was assertive. The rookie quarterback wasn't at all flustered by the situation. You'd never know it was his first extended NFL action.
"The very first third down, he comes in, oh my gosh, it's Cover Zero," Kittle shared. "He steps right up, delivers a nice strike. I'm pretty sure they Cover Zero blitzed him like a couple of times that game. He delivered on all of them, and they had to stop doing it. And next thing you know, we're winning by like three scores."
After that win, Purdy led the 49ers to seven more, helping guide the team to the NFC Championship Game. An early injury to Purdy in that game ended San Francisco's Super Bowl hopes. The quarterback suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow, undergoing surgery in March.
Purdy was cleared to practice at the start of training camp. What was it like to have the now-second-year quarterback back at practice?
"It felt like last year. It was great," Kittle said. "Yeah, walked in confident, didn't really miss a beat. He's just got a confidence to him, and you really appreciate that. Not everybody just has that.
"I'm not going to speak for Brock. I don't know if he's nervous. I don't know what his anxiety is like. We all deal with that on our own level, but when he's around the guys, in the huddle, he does a good job of commanding the huddle. He does a good job of speaking loud enough for everybody to hear him in the huddle. And those aren't natural things for everybody.
"And so the fact that he just comes in and controls the huddle from day one, it just kind of puts everybody at ease and is like, 'All right, yeah, we're right back on track. Let's keep going.'"
You can listen to the entire conversation with Kittle below. It begins at about the 28-minute mark.