Brock Purdy is starting to gain serious momentum towards winning this season's Most Valuable Player award in the NFL, but it seems as if he'd rather see one of his teammates get the honor instead.
Purdy was declared the betting favorite for MVP (-150 at DraftKings Sportsbook) after throwing for 242 yards on 16-of-25 passing with four touchdowns and zero interceptions in a 45-29 win over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was listed as the favorite coming into the weekend, but after throwing for just 134 yards on 21-of-34 passing with zero touchdowns and one interception in a 31-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills, Prescott has now fallen behind Purdy in the conversation, at least for the time being.
Purdy now has 3,795 passing yards with 29 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a league-leading passer rating of 119.0 (only Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Nick Foles have finished a season with a rating above that number). The 49ers still have three games to play, including a possible Super Bowl preview on Christmas evening against the Baltimore Ravens, but if Purdy continues playing at the level he's shown over the second half of the season, he could wind up hearing his name called when the award is handed out at the annual NFL Honors ceremony in Las Vegas on February 8, 2024.
But Purdy isn't the only 49ers player in the MVP discussion, especially after Sunday. 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey has also gotten some buzz, which isn't going to cool down in the near future after he rushed for 115 yards and one touchdown with five catches for 72 yards and two touchdowns against the Cardinals. McCaffrey now has 1,292 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on the season with a 5.3 yards per carry average, along with 57 catches for 509 yards and seven receiving touchdowns.
So who deserves to be the frontrunner out of the two 49ers MVP candidates? Purdy is becoming a more popular choice (among those to call him the MVP on Sunday were former 49er Richard Sherman and former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann), and he has the advantage of playing the position that usually wins the award. But Purdy made a case for McCaffrey when asked about the subject on Sunday.
"Dude, I think Christian should be MVP," Purdy said. "I really do believe that. He does everything for us, runs the ball well, can catch the ball. He does everything. And so in my eyes, that's an MVP."
Choosing between Purdy and McCaffrey isn't a choice others on the 49ers want to make. Left tackle Trent Williams at first wanted to dodge the question when it came up on Sunday before providing a diplomatic answer.
"It means the offense is playing really well. I mean, we got the best running back in NFL," Williams said. "So for him to get MVP consideration, I think that's his just due. And same away with Brock. Brock's been playing his butt off, so for him to be in a conversation as a teammate, I couldn't be more proud of both of these guys.
"And my job is to try to continue to help them have success. Who cares as long as we can bring that trophy back to Santa Clara? That's all I'm worried about."
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan avoided taking sides on the issue last week, saying he didn't want one player to cancel the other out. On Sunday, he affirmed that both Purdy and McCaffrey deserve the consideration they've been getting while still not making a case for one over the other.
"I don't have to differentiate, thank goodness, but (I've) been around a couple of MVPs probably in my career, and these two are," Shanahan said. "That's the most obvious thing to me. Obviously, I might be biased being on their team, but I don't think so. Like I said last week, all you got to do is look at numbers or you've got to look at the film.
"And whichever one you say is more important to you, I think it's extremely obvious. And if they're both important to you, that should make it even that much stronger. But those guys are playing pretty good."
Tight end George Kittle didn't exactly cast a vote for McCaffrey on Sunday, but he did speak out in favor of non-quarterbacks like McCaffrey and Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill getting as much attention for the award as the quarterbacks do.
"I'm glad you said something about that. Been actually wanting to stand on a soapbox about this for a while," Kittle said to a reporter Sunday. "Quarterbacks are definitely the most important piece of the team Everybody's talking about Purdy, everyone's talking about Dak and that MVP race -- and Brock's doing a great job, and he deserves all the love that he's getting. But you've got a guy like Christian McCaffrey and all the things he's done for us in the run game and the pass game and is absolutely elite every single Sunday... he's pretty impressive. The things that him and Tyreek are doing constantly, I don't know how you don't have them both in the MVP conversation."
The 49ers, as Williams alluded to, have more important goals in mind than one of them winning the MVP. But it certainly creates a fun storyline to their Super Bowl chase, while also adding another compelling chapter to the ongoing feelgood story of the player who has become so much more than the final pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
"I'm honored, but, man, I think I have a great team -- a great team around me and guys willing to make plays and stuff," Purdy said. "So I'm trying to do my part and help our team win, and I'm very honored to hear it, but I think we just have an MVP team overall."