Brock Purdy feels like this past year flew by. The San Francisco 49ers quarterback spent all of last offseason recovering from the surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) he suffered in the NFC Championship Game. He entered Week 1 as the starting quarterback and has had a phenomenal season. Purdy's 4,280 passing yards set a new franchise single-season record.
"It's been a pretty quick year," Purdy told reporters on Wednesday. "It feels like we were just in the playoffs, and we were just in Philly and all that. So, it's gone fast."
Now, here he is, preparing for another playoff run. Purdy hopes this season will be different, with the end goal of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
With last season's playoff run and so many more games under his belt, Purdy feels better prepared for whatever this postseason throws at him. The young quarterback plays with so much poise that it's easy to forget that he is only in his second NFL season.
"I feel like it's a little different," Purdy shared. "Just last year, still trying to find my way, in a sense. I got thrown in towards the end of the year, and so every single week, I was still trying to play good, and learn who I was as a quarterback, and obviously get more familiar with playing within the system."
Purdy entered his rookie season as the third quarterback on the depth chart. However, by Week 13, injuries had thrust him into the starting role. While it was a lot of pressure for a first-year player, Purdy welcomed the challenge.
"So those are all things that were sort of on my plate last year, and then obviously trying to win every single week and get this team to the end," Purdy continued. "And so now, I guess this year, just being more familiar with the offense, who I am and all that, it's a little different. But it's good to sort of watch the games from last year and sort of remember just the feeling and the emotions of playing in a playoff game.
"It's good. It's huge for me as a quarterback to go back to those moments and sort of remember what it feels like. So those are things that I'm sort of banking on."
Purdy admits that his first playoff game was tense because of the importance of every play. He didn't want to make a costly mistake that would end the season for the 49ers. At the same time, he had to make enough plays to ensure the team emerged with a victory.
"So those were things I sort of had to learn," Purdy said. "And watching the film, you get back into that feeling of last year and the first time in a playoff game. So it's sort of good to remember those kinds of things moving forward, sort of understanding what to expect for the first playoff game this year for me."
Purdy also draws from his experience this season. Which game was most beneficial? It wasn't some blowout victory against a formidable opponent. Instead, it was the devastating Christmas night loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
There was a lot of hype entering that primetime matchup. It was tough to ignore the outside noise, and Purdy threw a career-high four interceptions in the 33-19 defeat. The quarterback believes the experience will benefit him headed into another nationally broadcast matchup this weekend.
"Yeah, just it being a primetime game, Christmas Day, and all that kind of stuff, and then we sort of had two really good plays in the beginning of the game, and the stadium is feeling it, everybody's feeling good, and then boom, you make a mistake," Purdy recounted.
"So for me, it's huge to be able to get in that kind of moment and remember those kinds of things, for as tough as they were and how bad as I felt after. Man, that kind of stuff, it can help you if you allow it to, to go back and watch it on film and be real with yourself about those moments and what it takes to play quarterback at this level and be successful and play consistently and make the right decisions consistently.
"So those are all things that I took account from that game that I think I got better at. And honestly, we're going to find out with the playoffs coming up, in this game. Yeah, I thought I took some stuff away from it, but at the end of the day, we're going to find out on Saturday."