Entering the 2024 season, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback-coach duo of Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan ranked third in the NFL, according to CBS Sports. In his latest rankings, analyst Jeff Kerr dropped the 49ers duo three spots to No. 6 as the team heads into the 2025 season.
Unsurprisingly, last season's 6-11 finish and last-place standing in the NFC West contributed to the slide. However, Kerr still believes in the pairing, keeping them within the top 10 NFL duos. Since entering the league in 2022, Purdy has led the 49ers to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl, while Shanahan had already reached two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl before Purdy's arrival.
Statistically, Purdy's résumé remains impressive.
"Purdy still has the highest yards per attempt (8.9) and passer rating (104.9) in NFL history (minimum 1,000 attempts)," Kerr noted. "He was third in yards per attempt (8.5) last season despite the sixth-lowest percentage of passing yards from the yards after the catch (43%). Purdy also had the third-highest explosive pass rate (19%) last season (20+ yard completions), in spite of only having 20 passing touchdowns to 12 interceptions."
Purdy set a franchise single-season record with 4,280 passing yards in 2023. Still, he couldn't replicate that level of production in 2024 as injuries decimated the 49ers' roster—an issue critics often cite while arguing that the quarterback is merely a product of the talent around him.
Kerr points out that Purdy was 17-4 with an impressive 38 touchdowns and eight interceptions when Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and George Kittle were available. Now, Samuel is with the Washington Commanders, and Aiyuk is attempting to return from ACL and MCL injuries. When one of those five players was absent from the lineup, Purdy was 10-11 with 30 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.
"He's also 9-15 in games when tied or trailing entering the second half," Kerr added.
While there is significant faith in the Purdy-Shanahan partnership, Kerr believes Shanahan must overcome the Super Bowl hurdle to cement himself as one of the league's elite coaches.
"Purdy and Shanahan still have a ton of success in the league, but Shanahan needs that Super Bowl title to put him amongst the top five coaches in the game," Kerr wrote. "It wouldn't be surprising if the two have a bounce-back season."
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