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Quarterback Brock Purdy is the Unlikely Key to the 49ers’ Success.

49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy is having a season in which he is proving himself to be a top tier NFL Quarterback and the key to the 49ers' Super Bowl chances.
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With all of the talent on the San Francisco 49ers offense, people tend to forget that the key to their success is their quarterback, Brock Purdy. Yes, Purdy is not the best player on his offense. There is an excellent case to be made that Christian McCaffrey, Trent Williams, Deebo Samuel, and George Kittle are all better at their positions than Purdy is at his. But this doesn’t change the fact that Purdy himself is the Most Important Player on the 49ers and the key to their potential success.

Well, yes, of course. Purdy did throw five interceptions and went 0-3 when the 49ers lost Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel. He struggled mightily without Samuel and Williams in the lineup, but no one can be sure if these were the result of missing Samuel and Williams or just the growing pains that any young quarterback goes through. However, there seem to be some misconceptions about how bad Purdy was.

Unless the player is Patrick Mahomes, every young quarterback goes through growing pains. Every quarterback to play the game has been “figured out” or “exposed.” It’s how they adjust to the league and how they come back that is important. And after a three-week stretch where Purdy was exposed, he’s come back looking better than he’s ever looked. He’s made some throws in the past few weeks that he’s making for the first time. For many years, the NFL community wondered what the 49ers offense would look like with an elite quarterback. Now that it’s finally happening, people are refusing to believe it.

Brock Purdy is the Key to the 49ers’ Success

Making History

The 49ers offense has become so explosive and so dynamic with Purdy under center, they are on track to make history that was last made by a team quarterbacked by Peyton Manning.

These kinds of statistics are proof that not all of Purdy’s success should be attributed to his wide array of weapons and head coach Kyle Shanahan. Sure, Shanahan’s system helps. The weapons sure do help. Purdy is not THE system in San Francisco but rather a key cog in the 49ers machine. There is an actual case for his teammate Christian McCaffrey to win the NFL MVP. McCaffrey is San Francisco’s best player, and he is their Most VALUABLE Player, but Purdy is by far their Most IMPORTANT Player.

Now why is that? What’s the difference? The quarterback will always be the team’s most important player. Always. Even if he isn’t the team’s most valuable player. When the chips are down or when the defense keys in to stop McCaffrey, it will be up to Purdy to lift his team and take them to the finish line. At least one game in the 49ers’ playoff run will come down to Purdy’s arm and that is certain. This makes Purdy the team’s most important player.

There is some evidence that Purdy can win games for the 49ers when McCaffrey is not at his best. Earlier this season, Purdy threw for 252 yards and four touchdowns with 17 completions on 24 attempts and a 144.4 QB Rate in a 42-10 Week 5 victory over the Dallas Cowboys. McCaffrey took 19 attempts for just 51 yards in that game, or 2.9 yards per attempt. Purdy was nothing short of prolific in that game, and he offers the 49ers hope that he can lift the team to the finish line even when McCaffrey isn’t the best player on the field.

Brock Purdy is NOT Jimmy Garoppolo

There is some sentiment that Purdy is just the 2.0 version of his predecessor, Jimmy Garoppolo. With the evidence gathered from the first 18 starts of his career, it’s clear that he is a much better quarterback than Garoppolo ever was. Yes, the two do have very similar statistics. However, Garoppolo has never had a season where he’s thrown for more than 30 touchdowns, more than 4,000 yards, and less than 10 interceptions. Purdy is on pace to do all of those things this year.

In addition to this, Purdy is a playmaker. He’s able to make plays with his legs and outside the confines of Shanahan’s system. This is something that Garopollo could never do effectively, meaning that when he tried to do it…didn’t go well. People also seem to think that Purdy’s ability to hit open receivers in stride is somehow a bad thing, but Jimmy G had a lot of difficulty with this during his time in San Francisco.

Purdy also possesses other abilities that Garoppolo never did, such as pushing the ball downfield and his pocket movement. Jimmy G’s “happy feet” in the pocket and frequent indecisiveness caused him to throw some of the most boneheaded interceptions that football fans have ever seen. A lot of his interceptions will have NFL fans wondering, “Why did he throw it there” or “Who was he throwing it to?”

In direct contrast, most of Purdy’s interceptions are a result of his team being down late and causing him to put the ball in harm’s way. Others happened due to his inexperience and tendency to always try to make something out of nothing. Playing out of structure too much plagued him at Iowa State as well. Another difference is that Purdy has the ability to push the ball downfield, unlike Garoppolo.

Checkdown Merchant?

The statistics are vastly on Purdy’s side, system or not. The seco

nd-year signal-caller is second in passing yards (3,553) and touchdowns (25). He’s first in completion percentage (70.2), yards per attempt (9.9), yards per completion (14.1), quarterback rating (116.9), and QBR (74.9). He is also fifth in total completed air yards (1,812), second in air yards per completion (7.2), and first in air yards per completion (5.0).

His 1,741 yards gained through Yards After Catch (YAC) come in third most in the league, trailing just Patrick Mahomes (1,976) and Tua Tagovailoa (1,768). proving he isn’t the only quarterback to benefit from his playmakers. A certain narrative about Purdy is that he doesn’t throw the ball down the field. This couldn’t be further from the truth. He is the most efficient deep passer in the league this season.

Film Talks

A lot of those numbers are likely inflated by the players Purdy plays with. Not everyone gets to play with McCaffrey, Samuel, Kittle, and Aiyuk as their top four weapons. Samuel is the most electrifying player in the league with the ball in his hands. McCaffrey isn’t far away. Aiyuk and Kittle are also elite players after the catch. There is something to be said about the insinuations that Purdy solely relies on the run-after-catch ability of these talented weapons. It isn’t so much that Purdy throws them screens or check-downs, and they take it for 25 yards every play. The reality is closer to Purdy throwing them 15-yard passes, and they take it 25 yards. I’m not saying these guys haven’t taken checkdowns or screens for 40 yards. They have. But Purdy is throwing to them downfield for big yardage more often than they take check-downs for big yardage.

Nobody is saying that Purdy doesn’t benefit from his weapons. Nobody is saying that Purdy doesn’t benefit from the offensive genius of Kyle Shanahan. But to pin all of his success on these two factors is asinine. He is a really good quarterback in his own right. Don’t believe me? Just ask Hall of Fame left tackle Trent Williams. Don’t believe him? Just ask Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner. Don’t believe him? Just ask long-time NFL quarterbacks J.T. O’Sullivan and Chase Daniel. Don’t believe any of them? Believe the film and the following clips of him being a really good quarterback.

The MVP Conversation

The fact of the matter is that if he weren’t a good quarterback, he wouldn’t be putting up the numbers that he does. He wouldn’t make half the throws he’s making regularly. He wouldn’t be putting up record-setting statistics that were last accomplished by all-time great quarterbacks. And guess what? Those quarterbacks on those record-setting teams? They also had great players and coaches surrounding them. BREAKING: Great players are required for any quarterback to succeed.

So is he the MVP? Probably not. The MVP should be his teammate, Christian McCaffrey. But are people allowed to write him off his a product of his system? No way. He’s a very good quarterback who’d be successful on a lot of teams and make a lot of teams better. Sure, he probably wouldn’t make Carolina or New England any better than they are. But there are maybe 2 or 3 quarterbacks who could. So why do we hold Purdy to a higher standard than others?

So let’s all just calm down and watch him play. Let’s enjoy watching him play without rushing to judgment every 5 minutes. The same can go for any other quarterback. Hate grows weary on the heart. Learn to enjoy and appreciate rather than hate for fun. 49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy is the key to San Francisco’s success, and the 49ers will go as far as Purdy takes them come playoff time.

Main Image: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Ani Iyengar

Ani Iyengar

Ani is an avid 49ers fan and has been writing sports articles at the Official Sports Place for nearly 6 months. His ideal Sunday would be to nestle in his easy chair and watch football all day! In addition to his 49ers fandom, Ani is also a very big 49ers and Giants fan.

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