The Brock Purdy contract rumors are heating up. Mike Jones of The Athletic reported on Monday that Purdy “is expected to wind up with a contract that will pay him around $50 million per season and places him among the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.” With any Quarterback signing in the modern NFL, the organization will have to fork out some serious money. This situation looks to be no different.
Even after the 49ers making the Super Bowl under Purdy in 2024, many fans are debating whether or not he deserves a pay day this big. So, is it worth it for the 49ers to pay Brock Purdy $50+ million per season?
Quarterback Options
Before we get into Purdy, we need to take a look at what the 49ers other options are. If they don’t want to pay Purdy, there’s a few routes they can go to replace him.
The most obvious for 49ers fans is to go trade for Kyle Shanahan’s longtime Quarterback crush in Kirk Cousins. Shanahan drafted him, and the 49ers initially planned to sign him before they traded for Jimmy Garoppolo back in 2018. The issue with doing this is that Cousins is 37 years old and is coming off his worst season as a starter, where he was benched after throwing a league leading 16 interceptions. Hard pass.
If Kirk isn’t good enough of an option, the Niners could try to swing a trade and flip starters for someone they think is better than Purdy. The problem with this option is that other teams aren’t going to want to make a clear downgrade at the Quarterback spot. The only higher-end Quarterbacks that even have a chance to get moved would be Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, or Kyler Murray. Maybe there’s a couple more. Either way, it’s so rare to see a Quarterback swap. I have a hard time seeing any type of deal where the 49ers bring in another veteran signal caller getting finalized.
If not bring someone else in, then the Niners could ride it out with a backup caliber guy until they draft someone who they believe is a franchise Quarterback. In other words, tank. This is probably the most realistic option if the 49ers move on from Purdy and it still doesn’t add up. The core of the roster is getting older and they extended George Kittle last week. They aren’t in a spot to begin a rebuild.
Brock Purdy’s Market
The reality is that the 49ers have already made up their mind – they are going to pay Brock Purdy. Former NFL Quarterback Chase Daniel recently discussed the contract talks and brought up a good point.
“If you gave Brock Purdy $50m right now, he would slot in at number 11. Now, is he the 11th best quarterback in the league? Give or take, that’s fair.”
Daniel is right, that’s super fair and he’s probably a better player than multiple of the Quarterbacks who make over $50 million.
The reality is that the 49ers have no leverage and have already shown their cards. Purdy and his agent know the team’s only legitimate option is to get a long term deal done with him. At the end of the day, the question of “is Brock Purdy worth paying” doesn’t matter. At this point, he practically holds a blank check.
