John Lynch praises 49ers’ Brock Purdy: “He’s got all the arm strength you’ll ever need”

Heading into last year's draft, doubts swirled around Brock Purdy's arm strength, with heightened concern following surgery this past offseason to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his throwing arm.

Would Purdy be ready for the start of the regular season? Would he be able to get the football downfield to his receivers?

Those questions were answered, punctuated on Sunday by Purdy's 76-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, marking the longest throw of the quarterback's career.

"I don't think anybody's making more big plays down the field than Brock Purdy," general manager John Lynch said Tuesday morning on Bay Area radio station KNBR's "Murph and Mac" show. "I mean, he's throwing the ball down the field, chunk yardage. Guys like Aiyuk, [TE George] Kittle, [RB] Christian [McCaffrey], [WR] Deebo [Samuel], there's a lot of weapons there. He's going to take it to the right place."

Lynch, who closely monitored Purdy's recovery during the offseason, observed consistent improvement week by week. He has even noticed significant improvement since the start of the regular season.

"I do believe from game one until now, I think Brock's arm has continually gotten stronger," Lynch continued. "Maybe the bye week allowed it to rest a little, and he came back with a little extra juice. But really, it's about taking it to the right place. He's got all the arm strength you ever need. He throws it so accurately. He makes such good decisions, and he's just playing the position extremely well right now. We got to keep that going."

Lynch dismissed the narrative suggesting Purdy lacked the the arm strength needed to play the quarterback position at an elite level. Purdy has answered his critics with two impressive outings over the last two weeks, including Sunday's game, where he completed 21 of his 25 passing attempts for 333 yards and three touchdowns, earning a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

"He's got all the arm strength you'll ever need," Lynch said. "Is it stronger than where it was last year? I don't know, but it's looking really good right now, as evidenced by the perfect passer rating, all those things. And most importantly, he led us to a win. And Brock, he's so mature, and quickly after that game, was already talking about Seattle (San Francisco's Thursday night opponent) in the locker room. So he understands. He's a tremendous [leader].

"Leaders, to me, you make people around you better. I think he's got that quality in his play, also in his demeanor. And he had turned the page already and was looking forward to the challenge and knowing that we got to put together a great effort in short order against the Seahawks."

You can listen to the entire conversation with Lynch below.