Steven Ruiz has firmly planted himself in the camp of Brock Purdy skeptics. The writer for The Ringer doesn't believe the San Francisco 49ers can win the Super Bowl with Purdy under center. He believes it so much that he is willing to put his career on the line.

"I'm sorry. I watched the film, and he's not doing anything," Ruiz recently said on a podcast for The Ringer. "He's running the offense well, and I get the argument that, 'Oh, yeah, he's a good quarterback for this system, and he's the right quarterback for this system,' and then I get yelled at when I rank him 25th.


"Here's my thing: I'm ranking these quarterbacks, not based on their suitability for the Kyle Shanahan system. I'm ranking them based on what they would do in a normal offense, like a league-average offense. And if we put Brock Purdy in the league-average offense, this game isn't going to lead to top-of-the-league results."

Despite Purdy's impressive feat of setting a franchise record by completing 95.2 percent (20 of 21) of his passes on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals, Ruiz saw flaws in the quarterback's game. He contends that Purdy's success on one specific play—a deep pass to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk—owes more to fortune than skill.


Can the 49ers win the Super Bowl with Purdy as the quarterback?

"They can't. No," Ruiz responded. "If they do, I'm not covering the sport again. If they win it with Brock Purdy ... Sam Darnold, sure. I can get on board with Sam Darnold, not Brock Purdy."

When pressed about Purdy's near-perfect game, Ruiz quickly pointed out that the 49ers quarterback had two incompletions. He mentions that one was nullified by a penalty, making the performance less remarkable in his mind.


Not to help Ruiz's case, but Purdy actually had two incompletions erased by penalties: one intended for fullback Kyle Juszczyk in the opening quarter and another for Aiyuk in the fourth. Both were negated due to defensive holding. Nonetheless, it's important to recognize that nullified incompletions aren't included in quarterback stat lines.

This week, when asked about accusations that Purdy is a system quarterback, head coach Kyle Shanahan responded, "That's pretty ridiculous. You just got to watch the tape. I mean, he plays at a high level every time he's been out there. And he's done it in a lot of different situations versus a lot of different defenses, on the road, at home, in playoff games, when injured. You can't do all that stuff [if you're a system quarterback]. He's been out there too long. It's on tape."

Ruiz is making it clear that he doesn't think very highly of Purdy, admitting, "I'm a hater. I'm hating so hard right now."


H/t TheSFNiners for the find

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