There has been not been a ton of noise surrounding quarterback Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers on a potential contract extension. Instead, there has just been speculation which commentator Dan Patrick added to with a spicy take recently.
Speaking on his radio show, Patrick said he believes that Purdy is going to be worse the rest of his career because he will lose his weapons:
"Got rid of Deebo. I think they put themselves in salary cap hell with Brandon Aiyuk's contract. How much longer does Williams play? George Kittle, how long does he play? McCaffrey, how long does he play?"
Patrick's take is not a completely outlandish one. It is not unreasonable to look at the Niners' key offensive players and the fact many of them are aging and could potentially be on the decline soon.
We saw last season that Purdy struggled at times without having Aiyuk, running back Christian McCaffrey, and left tackle Trent Williams. This is not necessarily a knock on Purdy because pretty much any quarterback would suffer at least a little bit if they were missing their key offensive players.
Still, it is interesting to ponder whether we have already seen the best of Purdy and that he will decline the rest of his career.
Obviously, one hopes that is not the case considering the 49ers appear poised to give him a lot of money.
Patrick's take seems to take for a given that Purdy is not going to improve as a quarterback going forward. We saw with the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady, that he was able to improve over time in his career and was eventually able to win even without his best weapons at his disposal.
Purdy is still a young player, so there is the potential for him to improve his craft over time and eventually become better able to win even if he is missing key players on offense.
If the Niners do sign him to a big contract extension, and some recent comments suggest they are moving in that direction, they will be making a big bet that he is the guy and that he is able to carry and facilitate the offense.
No matter what, the 49ers are very lucky that Purdy was able to bail them out when they needed him most and he has shown that he is capable of being a very good NFL quarterback.
Let's hope that Patrick's prediction that it is all downhill from here for the 25-year-old signal-caller ends up being wrong.
