Is Brock Purdy a “system quarterback”?
49ers left tackle Trent Williams sure doesn’t think so.
Purdy threw for a career-high 368 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in Sunday’s 28-16 victory over the Seahawks. After the game, Williams theorized to reporters that Purdy might not be getting the credit Williams feels the QB deserves because of his draft status. But Williams feels Purdy is playing as well as anybody in the league.
“I don’t get why people say he’s a system quarterback,” Williams said, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “No system quarterback makes tight-window throws before they’re there, throwing people open, putting the ball into a window and trusting his receiver to get there, layering balls over linebackers who are in good position, and still getting the ball over their head, getting it to the playmaker.
"[He’s] just so accurate. You watch a lot of his throws, the accuracy gives them guys a chance to run after the catch, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for that.”
Purdy is now atop the league with a 116.9 passer rating, tied for second with 25 touchdown passes, second with 3,553 passing yards, and is averaging a league-leading 9.9 yards per attempt.
Moreover, per Nick Wagoner of ESPN, Purdy has completed 74 percent of his passes traveling at least 15 yards in the air over the last five games. He’s averaging 24.6 yards per attempt on those throws with six touchdowns and no interceptions. In Sunday’s game, Purdy was 6-of-7 for 225 yards with two touchdowns on passes with at least 15 air yards.
Williams noted that opponents don’t simply see Purdy as a product of the system, saying that if he had Zach Wilson’s draft status at No. 2 overall, “he’d probably be unanimous MVP” and labeled as “the next coming of Aaron Rodgers, or somebody like that.”
“In locker rooms, guys who know football, guys who study us before they play us, there’s no way you can look at him and say, ‘That’s a system quarterback,’ when you watch the throws he makes, you watch him making them under pressure,” Williams said. “I mean, he rarely checks the ball down. Everything is going upfield, getting the ball upfield, even has the ability to buy extra time with his feet. And even when he does, his eyes stay down the field. Very seldom is he looking to run the ball past the line of scrimmage. He really wants to get it into his playmakers’ hands.
“I think he does the best job right now in the NFL at getting that ball into his playmaking hands, whether it’s five yards down the field or 55 yards down the field. He can make every throw. He literally can make every throw, and you can’t show a throw that he can’t make.”
So, Williams has come to a conclusion on Purdy.
“His success is not a secret,” Williams said, “and it damn sure ain’t got nothing to do with the system.”
