Report: Brock Purdy ‘wants his respect’ in contract negotiations

Mike Garofolo shared pessimism with the Brock Purdy negotiations unless the 49ers hit a big number.

The San Francisco 49ers have had a quiet offseason, seeing a number of players depart while not bringing in any marquee free agents to date.

The moves were foreseen when general manager John Lynch revealed that the team was looking to cut back its spending and get younger at the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, but it wasn’t clear to what extent the 49ers would go.

Well, they’ve made quite a few moves, releasing defensive end Leonard Floyd, fullback Kyle Juszczyk (was brought back), and defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Maliek Collins, while also trading wide receiver Deebo Samuel.

While the cap savings haven’t been plentiful, the 49ers are saving quite a bit of cash with the moves, which is potentially freeing up the money to pay quarterback Brock Purdy.

All offseason long, there has been debate around Purdy and the contract he should receive this offseason, with many sharing skepticism that his next deal should come in the range of $50-55 million like quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence, Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Jordan Love, Jalen Hurts, and others.

Others have even shared the belief that Purdy would be willing to take less, somewhere in the $45 million range, given his current resume and the way San Francisco negotiates long-term contracts.

However, NFL Network’s Mike Garofolo shared pessimism on that idea, revealing his belief that Purdy will want to be one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL.

“John Lynch knows what’s coming and it’s that Brock Purdy deal that at some point is going to happen this offseason,” Garofolo shared. “I know he was the last pick in the draft, you may have heard about it. I know that it’s a system that people think, ‘oh you just plug a quarterback in and he runs the system.’ Oh really? Because they tried to do that with a bunch of guys and it didn’t work as well as it has with Brock Purdy.

“So, Purdy is going to look at this and say, ‘I need to be paid like one of the top quarterbacks in the league.’ Now, if you go back over the last five years or so, you see the quarterback deals that were done. The average per year is usually anywhere from like 21 to 25 percent-ish of the salary cap. If it’s on the low end of that, he’s going to clear guys like [Jacksonville Jaguars QB] Trevor Lawrence. Now, he’s not going to get to Dak Prescott’s number of $60 [million per year], but he’ll be in the high 50s.”

That percentage of the salary cap portion is certainly intriguing as the salary cap increased by over $20 million this offseason, which would only drive up that figure for Purdy. If the salary cap ends up being around $277 million for the 2025 season, 21 percent of that would be over $58 million annually, which would trail only Dak Prescott on average per year.

If that number is near the 25 percent range, that would be around $69 million annually, which would well exceed the $60 million mark set by Prescott.

Now, Garofolo doesn’t believe the numbers will get that high, but the increase in salary cap does pave the way for Purdy’s average annual value to get into the $50+ million range.

“If he really wanted to push into Joe Burrow, who took the biggest chunk of the salary cap, that’s like $68 million per year,” Garofolo continued. “I don’t get the sense that Brock Purdy wants to go there because that's going to hurt the team’s ability to do other things like we were just talking about, but he wants his respect and he wants money that’s like in with those other quarterbacks. So, I don’t see this getting done until the 49ers and Brock Purdy agree on a number that’s close to Dak Prescott, not all the way there, but close to Dak Prescott.”

Reports have surfaced about ownership’s unhappiness with how certain recent contracts were negotiated, which could set up for a tough offseason between the 49ers and Purdy’s camp.

If the quarterback does push to get into that top quarterback range as Garofolo suggests, this one may not get done for a while.