It's no secret that not everyone is convinced that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is worthy of the five-year, $265 million contract he was given back in May. But unless that criticism comes from the Niners' front office, his coaches, or his teammates, the 25-year-old genuinely couldn't care less.
Purdy's unlikely ascent to becoming one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL has been well-documented, so there's certainly no need to go through all of it again.
But the short version is that he was a mid-level prospect coming out of high school, worked his way up from the bottom of the depth chart at Iowa State, was famously "Mr. Irrelevant" in the 2022 NFL Draft, and has performed better than anyone could have expected since he was thrust into action with the Niners following injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo.
The big knock on Purdy has been that he's a system quarterback (which is a ridiculous term, by the way), and that he wouldn't have had all the success he has without all the talented players he's had around him. And perhaps there's a little truth to that. But you know who else was a system quarterback? Joe Montana—and don't pretend that's not a fact. Again, though, Purdy doesn't care what anyone outside the San Francisco organization thinks, as he recently told Richard Sherman.
"I've always felt this underdog kind of story. It's been my story from high school to college to the NFL," Purdy said on The Richard Sherman Podcast.
"Every single year, all that matters is if I'm leading these guys in this locker room, in this building, for this organization, and they trust me here. That's all that matters."
San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan has had faith in Purdy from the beginning. Even when Lance, who was taken third overall in 2021, was set to take the reins as QB1 heading into the 2022 campaign, Shanahan told CEO Jed York that he believed Purdy was the true future of the franchise under center, which obviously turned out to be true.
After going 7-1 between the regular season and postseason as a rookie—one still has to wonder what would've happened in that NFC title game loss to the Philadelphia Eagles had Purdy not torn his UCL—the Arizona native set a single-season franchise record for passing yards in his first full year in 2023, throwing for 4,280 yards and 31 touchdowns during the regular season to finish fourth in the NFL MVP voting before leading the Niners to a berth in Super Bowl 58, where they lost in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs.
He wasn't nearly as productive during the team's disappointing and injury-plagued 2024 campaign, but still threw for 3,864 yards and 20 touchdowns, thus earning a 96.1 passer rating (which was higher than Patrick Mahomes, by the way), while also adding a career-high 323 yards and a team-high five touchdowns on the ground.
Naturally, with Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk missing so much time last year, Purdy took tons of the criticism mentioned above, as pundits opined that he simply wasn't talented enough to lead a team on his own.
But seriously, take away an RB1 and WR1 from any team, and it's going to struggle. And that's not even mentioning Purdy losing his best offensive lineman in Trent Williams. Throw in all the injuries the Niners had on defense, and it's almost a miracle they won six games.
Once again, though, Purdy doesn't care about his critics. All he's concerned with is getting San Francisco back on track and helping the franchise win its first Super Bowl in more than three decades.
"We've been able to prove that what we do here, we've won games, we've been to the Super Bowl. It's worked," Purdy told Sherman. "As long as I've continued to focus where God has me, learning with Kyle [Shanahan], Mick Lombardi, all my teammates, having and gaining their trust is all that matters.
"Everyone's going to have something to say. That's the nature of the sport, and that's fine. If I were to listen to criticism, I wouldn't be where I am today. I have a chip on my shoulder and go prove myself right every single year."
Get fired up, Niners fans. Your quarterback is ready to roll.
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