Three things 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy does well

Posted By on July 7, 2023

Brock Purdy has blown away all expectations for the final pick in the 2022 draft. We recently looked at areas Purdy can improve for 2023. Today we take a look at what the 49ers quarterback does well.

Intermediate Passing

There has been a lot of talk this offseason regarding Purdy’s arm strength. Let’s face it, he’s never going to launch a pass sixty plus yards down the field like Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. Despite the lack of a big arm, Purdy executed the 49ers offense at the highest level we have seen since Kyle Shanahan took over in 2017.

One area where Purdy shined was throws into the intermediate area, this is considered ten to 19 yards past the line of scrimmage.

Throughout the regular season and postseason, Purdy completed 37 of his 46 attempts, 80.4 percent, into the intermediate area of the field. To put into perspective how good this number is, consider the next closest was 68.9 percent by Deshaun Watson in Cleveland. Over the last 20 years only five quarterbacks have finished in the seventy percent range, the highest being Kirk Cousins in 2019.

Redzone Passing

The 49ers offense took off following the acquisition of Christian McCaffrey prior to the week seven contest against Kansas City. Over the next four weeks the 49ers offense averaged 25.4 points per game with Jimmy Garoppolo under center before he was lost for the season on the first possession against Miami.

With Garoppolo out of the lineup, Purdy stepped in and took the offense to another level.

Over an eight-week period from the Miami game through the NFC Divisional round win over Dallas, Purdy and the 49ers offense averaged 32.6 points per game. One reason for the increase in points was Purdy’s ability to deliver in the redzone.

On throws from inside the opponents 20 Purdy completed 13 of 17 attempts including six touchdowns. Purdy completed a touchdown on 35 percent of his redzone throws, a seven percent increase over that of Garoppolo.

Using his eyes

One of the toughest things for young quarterbacks to learn is how to use their eyes to move defenders and open passing lanes. Purdy showed this ability right away.

Here is an example of Purdy manipulating the Miami defense with his eyes for a strike to Jauan Jennings to convert a third down.

It didn’t stop there. Later in the season against Las Vegas, Purdy delivered this gem.

This article has 34 Comments

  1. Purdy is a game manager. Nothing more! It’s only the Smithers and Jimmers who love Purdy because they don’t know a good QB when they see one and they have low expectations. Just like the Yorks who cast aside the best QB they have had since Montana. Yes I am talking about none other then Colin Kaepernick. This sorry excuse for a franchise will never win another championship with loser Jed and loser Shanahan calling the shots. But all the fans will continue to be happy with winning meaningless regular season games with Alex Smith, I mean Jimmy G, I mean Brock Purdy under center. What a joke

    3. I read few years back somewhere that Krappernick was top 5 all time for money paid per snap, something like $31k per snap in his guaranteed $15M+ contract year 2015, when he was benched for Blaine Gabbert.

      That aside, I know you’re not the real bayareafanatic but an imposter. You write nothing like the original bay. In fact you don’t even have the same avatar.

  2. The picture tells the cajones/stature Purdy has by yelling/celebrating with/at a veteran lineman.
    Let’s hope the Cinderella story continues!

  3. Jack
    For what it’s worth I like how you broke down the QBs analysis with pros and cons

  5. “Throughout the regular season and postseason, Purdy completed 37 of his 46 attempts, 80.4 percent, into the intermediate area of the field. To put into perspective how good this number is, consider the next closest was 68.9 percent by Deshaun Watson in Cleveland. Over the last 20 years only five quarterbacks have finished in the seventy percent range, the highest being Kirk Cousins in 2019.”

    These are very impressive numbers. These stats (offensive scheme) are effective when the team has a top rated defense. But, if the team is a couple of scores down in the 4th QTR and the team needs a long home-run pass to win, the intermediate throw becomes ineffective.

    Purdy hardly had to play from behind last year which opens up an important question … can he bring the team back from a significant lead? Purdy had a great rookie season and has earned the starting QB job. But as I see it, there are still some unknowns in his game, and playing from behind is one that I’m interested in seeing.

    1. AES,
      I don’t think all of the unknowns will be known until the end of the 23 season and the playoffs.

      1. I agree Coach.
        Year two, may very well define his career. I felt that Purdy did an incredible job last year, but even a shooting star gets ooo’s and ahh’s for a second or two. Brock has not really faced any difficult times as a starter sans the injury in the champion game.
        His only comeback win last year came against the Raiders who are far from world beaters.
        I want to see Purdy win a few comeback type games this season which could truly solidify his hype, imho.

      2. OC, there are plenty of known unknowns and some unknown unknowns. The known knowns from last year might be irrelevant since there are many unknowns that might turn knowns into unknowns.
        Even the TC and pre-season will give us more unknowns next to some new knowns but it’s better than no knowns.
        Let the games begin already!

    2. They were down 10 to Vegas and showed several times they could move the ball quickly when needed.

      1. That was the when I became a true Brock believer. Imagine how good he’ll be by the end of this season. They struck lightening in a bottle.

      2. Per, Sportsnuat.com
        Here’s where they ranked the raiders defense in 2022.
        “31. Las Vegas Raiders
        The Las Vegas Raiders have an excellent edge-rushing trio headlined by Maxx Crosby, Chandler Jones and Tyree Wilson. Even with Jones declining, Las Vegas should be able to maintain one of the best pass-rushing duos in the NFL as Wilson develops. However, the Raiders have one of the worst NFL secondaries, linebacker is a significant weakness and defensive coordinator Patrick Graham doesn’t have the necessary pieces for his scheme to work. Unless someone steps up at cornerback, the Raiders will have one of the worst pass defenses in 2023.”

        It should come as no surprise that the 49ers had a comeback win against them. The raiders finished with a 6-11 record which only validates the raiders defensive woes.

        I guess that I’m not the easiest person to convince. That’s why I’m not able to go all-in on Purdy until I see at least another season of high level play from him. After following the 49ers for the better part of 60 yrs, I’ve learned to temper my assessment of players until after a few years.
        Call it an old man’s intuition, or likely experience, lol

        1. AES,
          Here is another old man who agrees with you. You think I would have learned my lesson by 2017 and Jimmy Gs first year but I was all in on JG and the huge contract the 9ers gave him. I would argue with any one who didn’t think JG wasn’t the next great 9ers QB. I was wrong x 10. This time around I am being a little more careful but that doesn’t mean i’m not rooting my a** off for BP. Go 9ers!!!! only 12 more days.

            1. Jack,
              I enjoyed Jimmy G’s time with the team but he wasn’t the next great 9ers QB and he shouldn’t have been the highest paid QB in the league.

              1. He was the best quarterback since Jeff Garcia. He usually ranked in the top 10 or near it. He was a strong leader for his team. Unfortunately he got injured too often which led them to draft Trey. He doesn’t need to be criticized based on what he accomplished. The next great QB comes along very seldom because as Kyle has often said there are usually only 4 or 5 of those in the world at any given time.

              2. OC, He was only the highest paid QB for a little while. Money is really irrelevant. He filled a need that no one else could at the time and we got our money’s worth.
                Will Trey be worthy of all the draft capital? is a similar question.
                Doesn’t really matter.

              3. The moment the trade was made it was pretty clear what Garoppolo’s contract was going to be. The 49ers basically took what they would be have paid him on the franchise tag and spread it over five years.

              4. My point was I was wrong, I believed he would be a great QB. He was a great leader and a good QB but he never reached the level of greatness.

  6. I expect and hope that Purdy will be just as bad this coming year as BAF thought he was last year. A repeat performance would be great for the Niners. Improvements by Purdy would be the cherry on top.

  7. Over an eight-week period from the Miami game through the NFC Divisional round win over Dallas, Purdy and the 49ers offense averaged 32.6 points per game. One reason for the increase in points was Purdy’s ability to deliver in the redzone.

  8. The 49ers/Garoppolo relationship was a strange one, especially given Jimmy’s injuries. Shanahan knew that a more athletic QB was necessary to contend for SB’s going forward.

    One thing I saw in JG’s passes that made me nervous was that he would sometimes force throws into double coverage. He was lucky that some of those passes weren’t turnovers due to DB’s dropping easy Int’s.

    I saw Purdy throw a few passes that were forced as well. This might become an area of concern if DCords can plan to exploit this.
    Gunslinger’s like Farve and Rodgers with great arm strength could take their chances at throws into tight and even double coverage. Purdy’s arm isn’t in that category.

    I have a sense that Shanahan still envisions QB’s like Cousins and Matt Ryan that can get the ball downfield with the long home-run pass that adds another weapon to the offense.
    This is where Darnold and Lance can make their mark in TC.

    1. Before we can seriously talk about Lance and Darnold and their big arms, they have to be good at the basics of the position. So far they haven’t proven they are good enough on the basics. This seems to be a problem with a lot of QBs who have big arms.

      1. I would agree with this if you’re only speaking about Darnold. Making any type of analysis on Lance is a reach when using only 4 games as a sample size.
        But, that being said, Darnold and Lance do have stronger arms than Purdy.

  10. One thing that continually is overlooked when dissecting Purdy, he has that intangible, football instincts. Unmeasurable but equally important to the traits that make up a quality QB. Is Purdy a flash in the pan, who the heck knows, we shall find out in the oncoming months.

    1. UC,
      That’s a very fair (and true) assessment. 2023 could be the real litmus test for Purdy.

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