Last season, Brock Purdy proved that his rookie campaign was no fluke. In his second NFL season, the young quarterback threw for a single-season franchise-record 4,280 passing yards despite coming off surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow. Purdy led the 49ers to the Super Bowl, and the team is expected to be a contender again in the 2024 season.
Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young joined Bay Area radio station KNBR on Tuesday morning to discuss Purdy's future in the NFL. Has the young signal-caller reached his potential yet? Young believes that is the wrong question. The NFL great already categorizes Purdy as one of the best processors in the league.
"What you've seen him do, I don't know that you can get significantly better once you're a great processor and the pressure doesn't get to you," Young said while noting that the surrounding offensive talent will help sustain Purdy's high level of efficiency.
There is always room for improvement, especially for those who value statistics. Perhaps Purdy could further reduce the number of interceptions he throws in a season or marginally improve his completion percentage. Young's point is that if Purdy continues to play like he has, the 49ers will remain contenders.
Young commented, "You might say, 'Okay, what can he get better at?' There's some small things that you can kind of pick at, but if we can have more of what we saw last year from Brock Purdy, we're going to be just fine."
Speaking to reporters ahead of the draft, Purdy acknowledged that he has a significant opportunity ahead of him. The quarterback will finally have an offseason to perfect his craft. As the last overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, he was buried on the 49ers' depth chart during his rookie offseason. Last year, he was recovering from surgery.
"The fundamentals, just with footwork and timing, my eyes, concepts, all of it," Purdy said. "There's a lot of stuff that I think I can clean up and get better at for sure. So coming back here, it's been great sitting down with the coaches and going over games and concepts, how I can continue to get better. ... So now, I can actually attack those things at practice and on the field, routes on air, all that kind of stuff. So I can sort of hone into trying to master my craft."
You can listen to the entire conversation with Young below.
