Brock Purdy seems different this offseason. Since stepping onto the football field following injuries to two other quarterbacks, he has shown the leadership qualities of a seasoned veteran, surprising many with his ability to analyze opposing defenses, even as a rookie.
With two seasons under his belt, Purdy's game is evolving. He is putting everything together and appears ready to take the next step. After setting a single-season franchise record with 4,280 passing yards in 2023, what that next step looks like remains uncertain, but it can only mean good things for a 49ers team with Super Bowl aspirations.
For the first time, Purdy is benefiting from a full offseason. As a rookie buried on the depth chart, he was fighting for a roster spot. Last year, he was recovering from offseason surgery on his throwing arm. Now, Purdy is in complete command of the offense, and his teammates have unwavering trust in their young leader.
"I just think when you've done what you've done on the field, it's always easier," head coach Kyle Shanahan said about Purdy's teammates accepting him as their leader. "I don't care how you are, no matter what type of leader or how you want to command or demand things from people, if you haven't had much success on the field, that doesn't last very long.
"He did that as a rookie. But then he was so caught up just trying to come back from his injury. Now, after having a second year in where he had an unbelievable year, he's in a much more natural position to do it. I think he does do it naturally.
"But the team, based off of what he's done, he's earned their respect on the field, and they know him as a guy inside and out, and no one respects anyone more as a person than how much they respect Brock."
Despite what his critics would have you believe, Purdy has yet to reach his ceiling. He's still working to see the offensive scheme the way his coach does and to master it like no other quarterback.
Purdy is slated to sign a massive contract extension next year, making him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL. That means the Shanahan-Purdy partnership is just beginning.
"I was so excited with how he did right away," Shanahan said of Purdy's NFL debut. "Just when we got him on the field with his few reps and then what he did in his rookie year, it was so exciting. Watching him overcome injury was unbelievable last year.
"He's got enough tape out there that everyone has a good grasp of what Brock is, and that's a very good quarterback. The way he's built, the way his mind works, the way he works at things, how humble he is, usually, any one of those situations only gets better with reps and being in more situations.
"Everyone wants to learn it or know it like the coach does, but the coaches only know it because we've been doing it for a long time, and we'd sit in that room in a chair and with a slow motion remote and get to go over stuff all the time."
Players don't always have that advantage. Beyond their work in the quarterback room, they learn on the fly, under fire on the football field. Additionally, they have to focus on perfecting the physical aspect of their games.
The gap between how a quarterback sees the game and how his play designer envisions it can be significant.
"So you always hope that they can count on the coach to help bridge that gap." Shanahan continued. "But especially with the quarterback, it's always good to know a lot. Sometimes, knowing a lot doesn't always help. You know too many of the what-ifs. I have a scar on almost every single play; we've done it long enough. You give the quarterback all those scars that you have as a play-caller, they might never throw the ball. 'Watch out, this could happen, this could happen.'
"So it's kind of on a need-to-know basis, to help them be the most successful. But the more they play, the more they learn. Because eventually, you do need to know all that stuff, and it's about how you handle it, and Brock has handled it very well."
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