https://ninerswire.usatoday.com/lists/49ers-offense-stats-brock-purdy-jimmy-garoppolo/
excellent article regarding Brock and how he helped the offense improve.
DEEO THROWS:
"It's not that Purdy was winging it deep every chance he got. According to Pro Football Focus, 11.6 percent of his attempts were throws 20-plus yards downfield. That puts him in the middle of the pack league-wide. However, it's a pretty substantial uptick from Garoppolo's 9.1 percent which ranked 31st in the NFL.
The bigger and more important change though was the efficiency from the QBs on those throws. Purdy attempted just one fewer deep throw than Garoppolo, but completed three more of them. He also converted four of those tosses into touchdowns compared to just one for his predecessor.
Deep ball completion rate lines up roughly with three-point percentages in the NBA. Purdy's 40.7 percent completion percentage on throws 20-plus yards down the field is very good, and ranked 12th in the NFL last season.
We aren't going to see a version of the 49ers' offense where they're consistently pushing the ball 20-plus yards, but they don't need that. Purdy is a bigger threat to not only take those shots, but complete them. It's another layer of the 49ers' offense defenses have to defend, which helps open things up in the short-to-intermediate areas they want to work."
INTERMEDIATE THROWS:
"Speaking of short-to-intermediate areas of the field, this is the area that could see the most substantial upgrade for San Francisco. Garoppolo was fine 10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. Last year he threw 19.2 percent of his attempts into this area and completed 62.7 percent of them. Purdy's attempt rate was basically the same at 19.7 percent, but he completed a whopping 80.4 percent of his passes in the intermediate range. That mark led the league by 12 percentage points. The distance between Purdy and No. 2 was the same as the distance between No. 2 and No. 30.
This efficiency will likely regress a bit in 2023, but the improvement is another reason for the 49ers' uptick in offensive output with Purdy playing QB. That ability to push the ball down the field even a little more often and a little more efficiently gives defenses more areas of the field to worry about when defending San Francisco."
OUTSIDE THE NUMBERS:
"A key wrinkle for San Francisco in the post-Garoppolo era is a greater penchant for throwing outside the numbers. That wasn't something Garoppolo was necessarily averse to, but he was certainly better and more apt to throw it in the middle of the field.
Purdy wasn't one to wing it to the boundaries more often than Garoppolo, but he specifically threw it short (0-9 yards beyond the line of scrimmage) and to his left 11.6 percent of the time. More than 17 percent of his throws went outside the numbers left thanks in part to that short-left number.
For comparison, Garoppolo went left on 14 percent of his throws and right on 13.4 percent. For Purdy those numbers were 17.3 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively.
This is where Purdy's scrambling really comes out. He had a tendency last season to spin out of the pocket to his left. That led to a slew of short throws that are completed outside the numbers at pretty good efficiency. The 49ers aren't likely to make a major change where they abandon the middle of the field. That's a key area for them in creating yards after the catch. However, having a quarterback who can more often force defenses to defend the boundaries will help keep them from sitting on throws in the middle and taking away the offense's bread and butter so easily."
THROWAWAYS:
"Throwing the ball away is typically a better option than taking a sack. It was not one of Garoppolo's strengths. His career-high in throwaways was in 2021 when he threw it away 15 times on 556 dropbacks. In 2020 he threw it away just once on 155 dropbacks, and in 2019 he did it 14 times on 589 dropbacks. Last year he was at four on 328 dropbacks before getting hurt. By comparison, Purdy dropped back 259 times and threw it away 11 times.
This may not seem like a huge deal, and in a vacuum the act of throwing the ball away isn't a positive. However, a throwaway typically replaces a sack. That means a second-and-4 becomes third-and-4 with a throwaway instead of third-and-long with a sack. It's not a coincidence that leaders in throwaways each year are some of the game's best, most-seasoned QBs. Just the act of living to fight another down can make things easier on the offense overall."
