The talent drain from the San Francisco 49ers has been stark this offseason.
Star defenders like linebacker Dre Greenlaw and safety Talanoa Hufanga departed via free agency, and emerging star running back Jordan Mason and Pro Bowl wide receiver Deebo Samuel were shipped off via trade amid a significant purge from the roster this spring.
San Francisco’s high-profile departures come just as the 49ers are set to make Brock Purdy one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league, which could prove to be a daunting challenge to build a roster capable of pushing for championships around him with so many star-caliber players on the move.
Did 49ers’ talent purge have to do with Brock Purdy extension?
While some players leaving San Francisco can be justified by age or uncertainty over their recent injuries and remaining upside, it’s difficult to ignore the impending commitment to Purdy’s and its role in some of the 49ers’ decisions in recent weeks.
It turns out that preparing to pay Purdy factored into some of the 49ers' decisions so far.
Some fans have even called 49ers owner Jed York cheap, but he admitted that Purdy’s looming extension factored into San Francisco's posture this offseason.
“I’ve been called worse,” York told reporters at the NFL Annual Meeting. “I get it. Fans care. You want to win. And when you’re in a world where everybody is watching the NFL the first week of free agency or at least the first few days of free agency, it’s a frenzy. … When you’re not overly active in that space, it gets easy to say, ‘Oh, you don’t want to win.’ … I don’t know that, as we looked at the board, that there was somebody that we felt made that type of an impact more so than making the decision to try to go pay Brock.”
Purdy and the 49ers took a step back in 2024 as injuries ravaged both sides of the ball, but San Francisco is just a year removed from a Super Bowl appearance and has reached the NFC Championship Game in two of the past three seasons.
Paying Purdy won’t be cheap. Even if the 49ers make Purdy the fifth-highest-paid quarterback, he’d likely collect somewhere in the area of $280 million or more.
But, the 49ers believe that Purdy is among the top-10 quarterbacks in the league, entering 2025.
“I think he is,” York said. “I think he’s great. Especially when you combine him with [coach] Kyle [Shanahan] and you combine him with what we have, and he’s a heck of a quarterback. And we want him to be here for a long, long time.”
