Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers
Getty
Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers
The NFL world lost its mind when Brock Purdysigned a $256 million contract extension. As expected, the majority of fans’ takes are either Brock Purdy is overrated or Brock Purdy is worth every penny of that $256 million deal.
Rarely do we see the middle ground in NFL takes, but what makes this situation especially funny is that both sides are failing to address the biggest aspect of Brock Purdy’s massive payday.
Brock Purdy’s Contract
There’s no question thatBrock Purdy got his bag. The $265 million over 5 years he signed for will make him the eighth highest paid Quarterback in the NFL. He will make $53 million per year. But this isn’t a surprise at all. Brock was always going to make over $50 million. That’s just theQuarterback market. In terms of AAV, Dak Prescott makes $60 million, Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence make $55 million, and Tua Tagovailoa makes $53.1 million. If anything, Purdy’s deal is a bargain after looking at that list of Quarterbacks.
Why it’s Perfect for the 49ers
The part of the contract that everyone needs to evaluate is the guarantees. Brock is guaranteed $163 million in the first three years of the deal, and $180 million total.
What does that mean, and why is that important?
Well, the 49ers are going to pay Brock Purdy the market rate for three seasons. But, they do have the ability to move off of his deal after that. The Niners have the most important aspect of any Quarterback contract: flexibility.
The reality is the 49ers didn’t have an option outside of signing Purdy to a market-rate contract. There are no feasible NFL Quarterbacks worth trading for or signing. On top of that, this past Quarterback draft class was weak, and the 2026 class is expected to be of similar talent. The 49ers are currently Super Bowl contenders, and there wasn’t a path for them to upgrade elsewhere.
All the 49ers wanted was to have flexibility if Purdy doesn’t work out long term, and that’s what they got. So let’s look at a couple of scenarios: Purdy doesn’t play well enough to warrant his contract value, or the 49ers are in a position to acquire a Quarterback that they view as an upgrade. In either scenario, the 49ers will have the ability to discard Purdy with minimal losses.
Other Quarterback Contracts
You may be thinking, isn’t this how every contract works? No, it’s not. The most extreme examples are the Derek Carr (partially bailed out by his retirement) and Deshaun Watson contracts, where the teams have had to keep pushing the cap hits down the road. There’s alsoDak Prescott, who plays just well enough to get new contracts, but his cap hits are absurd, and the Cowboys are never able to move off of him. Many of these contracts aren’t team-friendly.
So yes, Brock Purdy got paid like a top Quarterback in the NFL. But if we are looking at the Quarterback market and the structure of his deal, this is a big win for the 49ers front office.