Though the 49ers are playing their third-string quarterback, they’re still winning with Brock Purdy.
San Francisco is on a seven-game winning streak, with the last three games started by Purdy. He also played the majority of snaps in the club’s 33-17 victory over Miami, when Jimmy Garoppolo went down with a fractured foot.
Despite Purdy’s steady play, head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday that he’s not thinking about Purdy’s long-term future with the franchise.
“I don’t even know what year it is after this season’s over,” Shanahan said, via Matt Maiocco of NBCSportsBayArea.com. “I’m thinking about how to try to get him ready for [practice on] Wednesday, man. It’s a great question. But, honestly, I don’t look ahead like that. We got a number of big games in front of us.”
In the last four games, Purdy has completed 69 percent of his passes for 846 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions while averaging 8.0 yards per attempt — good for a 110.0 passer rating. It’s a small sample size, but that would rank ahead of Tua Tagovailoa (105.5), Patrick Mahomes (105.1), and Jalen Hurts (104.5), who are the league’s top three in the category.
“I thought Brock played well, real well,” Shanahan said of Purdy’s latest performance against the Commanders. “He was smart with the ball.
“I thought he just did a great job of not doing anything stupid with some tough situations.”
Given that he was the last pick of the 2022 draft, Purdy’s play has been surprising. And there’s no guarantee that it will continue as the 49ers advance into January football. But if nothing else, they’ve set themselves up with a potentially good problem to have when Trey Lance returns next season when it comes to options at the game’s most important position.
