Brock Purdy signed a five-year extension worth $265 million two weeks ago to make him one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. The big contract comes with higher expectations, especially since the 49ers lost eight starters this offseason as they prepared to make room for extensions to Purdy (and Fred Warner and George Kittle).
Purdy has the highest passer rating (104.9) and yards per attempt (8.9) in NFL history (minimum 1,000 attempts) but there are fair questions about whether he will live up to the contract as he and the 49ers struggled in 2024 while dealing with a laundry list of injuries (and a Super Bowl hangover).
It probably won't get any easier for Purdy in 2025 as Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk are coming off injury and Deebo Samuel was traded to the Commanders.
One area where he will definitely have to improve is in late, close situations. One of my favorite questions in football is who do you want with the ball in his hands with the game (or season) on the line? Purdy's play, especially when his all-world supporting cast is shorthanded, has not inspired a lot of confidence in that area.
He has nine touchdown passes and 15 interceptions in his career when tied or trailing in the second half and overtime, compared with 61 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions in all other situations. That amounts to the worst touchdown-to-interception ratio and highest interception rate among 28 quarterbacks with 280+ attempts in those late, close situations since he entered the league in 2022. Dead last.
