If you think about the value the San Francisco 49ers have gotten out of quarterback Brock Purdy, it may make your head hurt. That is, unless you're part of the 49ers front office.
Purdy is an incredible story of how anything is possible in the NFL. He's not quite at the Tom Brady level of draft irrelevancy to GOAT, but Purdy's rise from the very last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft to being a franchise quarterback for one of the most historic and well-run franchises in the NFL is awesome.
Frankly, it would be unbelievable if it wasn't happening right before our very eyes.
Now, the 49ers didn't have a great season at 6-11 and they missed the playoffs for the fourth time in the Kyle Shanahan era, but there's reason to believe that the future is still very bright in the bay.
Much of that has to do with the brain trust of General Manager John Lynch and Shanahan — who are two of the very best in the NFL at their respective jobs — but there's also optimism regarding the future of Purdy.
“Mr. Irrelevant” took the 49ers to the Super Bowl last season and there's little reason to believe that he couldn't do it again as long as Lynch and Shanahan pull the right levers around him. No, Purdy isn't a superstar athlete like Lamar Jackson or a “unicorn” like Josh Allen, but he's a consistent passer who knows how to read defenses and he excels at executing Shanahan's offense.
The Shanahan scheme has always been run-heavy anyhow — the 49ers once threw only eight times in an NFC Championship Game win over the Green Bay Packers in 2019 — but it does ask the quarterback to make the right reads and plays at the right time.
That's exactly what Purdy has done for the 49ers, and all indications coming out of San Francisco are that the 49ers want him to keep doing that for them in a long time.
Purdy has been playing on four-year rookie contract worth just $934,253 annually, but he's eligible to discuss an extension now that the contract is entering it's final year, and it sounds as if Lynch and the 49ers want to play ball, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.
“I think what we know about Brock is that he's our guy,” Lynch said. “We have interest in Brock being around here for a long, long time. He's done so much for our organization; he's won big games and had a little tougher task as we all did this year with some of the things that happened throughout the course of the year.
“We just never could string games where we were all together and through that, he continued to lead, he continued to play at a high level, so we have every interest in him being around,” Lynch continued. “We'll have some time here in the coming weeks to sit together and put our whole plan together. That's obviously a priority, that position, and we'll give it that attention.”
The 49ers say it's a priority, and Purdy seems to feel the same way.
“More than anything for me, I want to be able to handle business the right way and do it in a respectable manner and get back to my team as fast as I can to get going,” Purdy said. “That's my mindset, my focus. And obviously I want to help the team across the board with all the other guys who need to get their deals done, but everybody will handle it the right way and how they need to.”
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This seems like a match made in contact heaven. Both sides want to get the deal done. They're saying the right things publicly, and there is no indication that there is any friction happening behind the scenes either.
So how much will the 49ers pay Purdy?
That remains to be seen, but it's worth noting that Spotrac believes his new contract could be worth $238 million over four years.
That's a big number. It's nearly $60 million a year, which is a huge jump up from the $1.1 million Purdy is scheduled to make if the final season of his rookie contract remains the same.
For comparison's sake, Jordan Love was given a four-year, $220 million contract by the Green Bay Packers before the 2024 season and Dak Prescott was given a four-year, $240 million contract by the Dallas Cowboys. Trevor Lawrence signed a five-year, $275 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Joe Burrow got the same contract from the Cincinnati Bengals in 2023.
Purdy, for as good as he is for the 49ers, isn't at that Burrow and Lawrence level as a quarterback. But there is a case to be made that he slots into the Prescott and Love bracket, and we know the Cowboys always overpay their players.
Slating him in right around that $230 million mark over four years could end up being the perfect fit for both parties. Purdy would get paid and the 49ers wouldn't be breaking the bank into the superstar level of the quarterback market.
How will it ultimately paly out? We'll have to wait and see, but it does sound like this will happen sooner rather than later for Purdy and the 49ers.
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