On Friday, San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Klay Kubiak said he believes quarterback Brock Purdy has benefited from facing defensive coordinator Raheem Morris' defense in practice this season. The secondary has been more aggressive, forcing Purdy to match it with aggressive throws.
Purdy is having a phenomenal season, completing 69% of his passes for 1,196 yards, 13 touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 119.3.
With five more pass attempts, Purdy's career passer rating of 105.4 will put him at the top of the NFL's all-time list. Kubiak believes that achievement is more a team accomplishment than an individual one, and he doesn't pay much attention to statistics like that.
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"But when I look at passer rating around the league, to me, you look at guys who are playing in very efficient offenses," Kubiak said. "You're seeing guys who are distributing the ball. They're getting completions. They're not turning the ball over a lot, which is usually a reflection of how the team's playing."
Head coach Kyle Shanahan also believes that accomplishment might be somewhat overrated, though it speaks to his quarterback's consistency.
"I think sometimes that stuff can be a little bit overrated, but I think it shows how consistent Brock is," Shanahan said on Saturday. "I've seen a lot of quarterbacks understand, over my career, some I've been with randomly and some you see on just how they are, but they know they know about that rating."
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Shanahan believes focusing too much on passer rating can affect a quarterback's decision-making. However, he doesn't believe that is an issue for Purdy.
"The only time Brock gets off of running stuff is when we're down, and he thinks he has to make a play," Shanahan said. "He'll put himself in harm's way and throw picks just to give us a chance to get back in it.
"So, Brock is such an unselfish player in that way, and I think every week, Brock plays to do what it takes to win, and sometimes that's being aggressive, sometimes it's not. But he plays to win, which is so amazing that he has a rating like that."
As for whether Morris' defense has contributed to Purdy's strong play this season, Shanahan agreed with Kubiak's assessment.
"It was stuff that we were really focused on in the offseason, and then you become a product of our training camp of what you're going against," Shanahan said. "And it was the first time going against a different defense here in 10 years, and Brock's five years or whatever it is, and there were so many high-lows and things like that on zone defenders than what we were used to.
"And we still got that sometimes, but the majority, it wasn't like that. So, we had to work different throws than what we had done normally for three weeks, and I think it really helped him a lot."
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