We know Kyle Shanahan likes Brock Purdy. Everyone likes him. But how eager is Shanahan really to give Purdy a long-term extension worth close to $60 million per season?
That’s the question.
Purdy seems like a pleasure to coach. He takes criticism, he works hard and he loves football. For the past three seasons, he has been one of if not the biggest bargains in American professional sports. But that doesn’t mean he’s worth $60 million per season.
Purdy is a good quarterback, but he doesn’t elevate the team around him which means he’s not elite. In the Super Bowl, the Chiefs sold out to stop Christian McCaffrey and dared Purdy to beat them, and he couldn’t. He averaged a mere 6.7 yards per pass attempt, threw just one touchdown pass and led the offense to 22 points including overtime.
As opposed to Jalen Hurts, who smoked the Chiefs defense in two Super Bowls.
If the 49ers couldn’t win the Super Bowl when Purdy was getting paid $1 million per season, how will they win it when he’s getting paid almost $60 million per season?
In 2018, the 49ers gave Jimmy Garoppolo a long-term extension that made him the highest-paid player in the NFL at the time. In 2019, they went to the Super Bowl with him. And by 2020, Kyle Shanahan wanted to replace him. That’s why the 49ers traded up for Trey Lance in 2021.
Is it possible that Shanahan still has PTSD from the Garoppolo experience? Is it possible he’s less eager to fork over hundreds of millions of dollars to quarterbacks who are good but not great?
We’ll find out soon enough.
