The 49ers have done some major house cleaning to clear the decks for the future of Brock Purdy with the new league year beginning Wednesday. Once he signs a contract — whenever it is — things will never be the same.
Goodbye, Mr. Irrelevant. Hello Joe and Steve.
Despite what Purdy has accomplished, there are those who simply can’t get past his last-pick-in-the-draft status. When the 49ers make their investment in Purdy’s future as well as their own, the weight of expectations will render that argument moot.
Now it’s all about the bottom line, and that means a championship. Simply putting your team ahead in overtime with the defense failing to close the deal won’t be enough.
It’s not true, of course. Purdy’s childhood hero as imported from his father and the reason he wears No. 13 is Dan Marino, a first-ballot Hall of Famer who never won a Super Bowl. But Purdy plays for the 49ers, who have long propagated the great American myth that anything less than a championship ring is a failure. Joe Montana won four (including one against Marino) and Steve Young one.
That puts Purdy in Jeff Garcia-Alex Smith territory. Players who did some very good things in the regular season and had semi-miracles in playoff games (Garcia against the Giants following the 2004 season, Smith against the Saints at the close of 2012) but couldn’t provide the ultimate satisfaction for a fan base that demands it.
Although it hardly seems possible, everything gets amplified when Purdy eventually agrees to the richest deal in 49ers history. That much became clear when coach Kyle Shanahan said of Purdy, “I plan on being with Brock the whole time I’m here.”
Any thought of having Purdy play out his final year at $5.2 million sends the wrong message to everybody — players, fans, staff — and would indicate the 49ers are devolving into a John Fisher bean-counting operation instead of the one that will spend what’s necessary and beyond. Obsessing over what Geno Smith will make with the Raiders has nothing to do with Purdy and the 49ers.
If Purdy delivers a championship, he’s doing what’s expected. If he doesn’t, it’s his fault even if it’s not.
It will be Purdy’s fault because he’s not in the Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen-Lamar Jackson-Joe Burrow realm among the best veteran quarterbacks.
It will be Purdy’s fault that the supporting cast is impacted by his contract, making it impossible for the 49ers to put the kind of team they did around him in 2022 and 2023. Kyle Juszczyk, Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, Charvarius Ward, Aaron Banks, Leonard Floyd, Maliek Collins, Javon Hargrave and Jaylon Moore were either sent packing or left on their own via free agency in theory to help store up reserves for a Purdy deal.
That’s not true either — the salary cap can always be manipulated to accommodate the right player — but it won’t be presented that way. The inference will be that the departed were part of the problem after a 6-11 season, and that Purdy is part of the solution.
It goes with the territory of being the quarterback, a position that gets too much credit and all of the blame when things go south.
Regardless of what you think about Purdy, there’s reason to be concerned if only because of the 49ers’ recent track record when it comes to writing big checks.
Brandon Aiyuk signed for a maximum of four years and $120 million and is now being dangled in trade talks for any team desperate enough to take on his contract despite a potentially debilitating knee injury and erratic nature during last season’s “hold-in.” He lasted seven games, didn’t score a touchdown and there’s no guarantee he’ll ever be what he was in 2023.
Deebo Samuel is headed for Washington at the start of the new league year Wednesday in exchange for a fifth-round draft pick, because he failed to live up to the three-year, $71.3 million extension made possible by his monster 2021 season.
Purdy’s top two receivers at the moment are Jauan Jennings and Ricky Pearsall Jr. and were joined by Demarcus Robinson, a solid complementary receiver with the Chiefs, Ravens and Rams.
Running back Christian McCaffrey signed a two-year, $38 million extension last offseason and essentially had his season wiped out by bilateral Achilles tendinitis and a PCL strain.
Left tackle Trent Williams held out for a three-year, $82.6 million extension and played just 10 games before shutting it down with a slow-to-heal ankle injury. He’s 36 years old.
The last time the 49ers took a leap of faith that paid off was in 2022 when Ward arrived as a free agent for three years and $40.5 million as a free agent from the Kansas City Chiefs. Now Ward is on to Indianapolis for what may be an even richer deal, depending on how it’s structured.
With that as a backdrop, the declaration by general manager John Lynch, presumably through CEO Jed York, that the 49ers will “recalibrate” makes a lot of sense. The 49ers have plenty of reason to feel a little gun-shy about doling out millions given their track record.
Purdy went from ultra-efficient to being occasionally mistake-prone in 2024. The 49ers struggled in the red zone. Purdy has struggled in bad weather. If those issues persist and the 49ers have another losing season, Lynch and Shanahan probably won’t survive it with their jobs.
The 49ers are committed to cornerback Deommodore Lenoir after signing him to a five-year extension worth a maximum of $89 million. Let’s assume George Kittle receives an extension that will pay him more money while reducing the 49ers’ cap hit, and linebacker Fred Warner as well. The entire 2024 draft class, as opposed to not getting much out of 2023, looks like a good one.
Can the 49ers backfill enough in free agency and 11 picks in the 2025 draft to overtake the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West? There was probably some wishful thinking that things would blow up in L.A. with quarterback Matthew Stafford. Instead, Stafford is back, and Davante Adams, a player who could have fit nicely in the 49ers’ scheme, has signed on as well.
If they don’t, the most heat will be on Purdy. Instead of the plucky underdog playing as the most underpaid player in the NFL, he’d be viewed as one of the most overpaid.
That’s how it works in the NFL when your title has officially changed to Mr. Relevant.