49ers quarterback Brock Purdy will be eligible for an extension at season’s end, and a report from last month indicated that San Francisco wants to hammer out a new deal for its starting signal-caller this offseason. Earlier this week, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports reported that the team could wait on a Purdy extension – perhaps with an eye towards franchise-tagging him in 2026 if need be – but Robinson confirms the Niners would prefer to strike a multiyear accord in the coming months.
After all, the QB market continues to boom, even for players below the top tier of the position. Although Purdy has regressed from his excellent 2023 performance and has been more inconsistent in 2024 – while also turning the ball over 15 times – players like Jordan Love and Trevor Lawrence arguably had not proven as much as Purdy when they entered their own negotiations, which culminated in $55MM/year contracts for the former first-rounders.
It therefore stands to reason that Purdy could command at least that much in his impending talks with the 49ers, and according to Robinson, the success of the contract discussions will depend on how ambitious Purdy’s camp plans to be. If 2022’s Mr. Irrelevant shoots for the top of the market – in other words, if he aims for Dak Prescott’s record-smashing $60MM AAV or Joe Burrow’s $146.51MM in full guarantees – then San Francisco could balk (even though Purdy has had more postseason success than Prescott, the Cowboys’ passer had unique leverage due to his prior contractual dealings with Dallas).
On the other hand, if Purdy is more “reasonable” in his demands and would be willing to accept a deal akin to Love’s (four years, $210MM, with $100MM in fully-guaranteed money), the Niners may be willing to play ball. Since Purdy, as a seventh-round pick, has made less than $3MM over his first three years in the league, even a payout on Love’s level would doubtlessly be quite tempting.
That said, the Iowa State product continues to be a QBR darling, as he presently ranks seventh in the metric after leading the league in that regard, along with “traditional” quarterback rating, in 2023. He ranks 13th in quarterback rating among regular starters in 2024 (coincidentally, one spot behind Love). This is despite the fact that invaluable skill-position players Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey have played a combined 11 games, with future Hall of Fame left tackle Trent Williams also missing significant time.
Plus, Purdy has compensated for his downturn in passing output with an improvement in his efforts as a runner, as he has carried the ball 66 times for 323 yards (4.9 yards per carry) and five scores. He is not a perfect player, and he may need more talent surrounding him than a truly elite passer might, but when it comes to quarterbacks, clubs are understandably reluctant to pass on a bird in the hand, no matter the cost. The Niners’ competitive window still appears to be wide open, and unlike the Cowboys during their first round of extension talks with Prescott, they may want to lock down their QB1 before the market continues to soar.
