Kyle Juszczyk is just one of several seasoned veterans on the San Francisco 49ers' talented roster. The fullback stands ready to support his second-year quarterback, Brock Purdy, who, until two weeks ago, boasted an unblemished regular-season NFL record.
However, recent weeks have seen Purdy and the 49ers face back-to-back losses, culminating in a Monday night defeat against the Minnesota Vikings. The team seeks to break its losing streak against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
If there is any advice that Juszczyk would offer his young quarterback, it's that NFL mistakes are inevitable, and you can't dwell on them. Perfection is elusive. Still, that doesn't mean the fullback has lost faith in Purdy's ability to help turn things around for the 49ers before it's too late.
"But I still feel like I saw so many great things from Brock in that game," Juszczyk said Wednesday morning on the "Murph and Mac" show. "Minnesota pressures the quarterback more than anybody in the NFL right now, and at the end of the day, he is still a young quarterback."
The Vikings deploy the blitz on 56.4 percent of their defensive plays, a substantial margin ahead of the next closest team, the New England Patriots, at 42 percent. On Monday night, Purdy faced pressure a dozen times, with the Vikings defense bringing him down once, according to Pro Football Focus.
"And I felt like, for the most part, he did handle that pressure pretty well," Juszczyk continued. "He had two erred throws that he wishes he could have back, but also saw some really good scrambling from him, like his ability to avoid the rush and make some plays downfield is an awesome added element to this offense."
The 49ers' locker room has seen what the team can do when it is firing on all cylinders. They've just got to return to executing at the level they expect of themselves.
Juszczyk added, "Definitely, we all still feel just as good about Brock as we did two weeks ago, and we know that he can turn around and have an incredible game this week against Cincinnati."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Juszczyk below.