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Despite all that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has achieved since entering the NFL as the final pick of the 2022 draft, the football community has repeatedly referred to him as a “game manager” who benefits from playing in the system run by head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Such talk understandably will grow only louder if Purdy struggles after he received a five-year, $265M contract extension that included $181M in guarantees and a no-trade clause.
During a Thursday appearance on San Francisco sports radio station 95.7 FM The Game, Purdy spoke about his criticisms throughout his young pro career.
“Everyone has an opinion,” Purdy said, as shared by Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports Bay Area. “I’m not going to lie, I laugh at some things that I do hear. Obviously, I don’t tune into every single opinion. I’m a man of faith, so for me, I just take it one day at a time. … I don’t try to buy into what people think of me and who they say that I am. I know who I am. That’s part of the business and the sport that we play. Everyone has to have an opinion and a take, but that doesn’t determine how I live my life and how I go about my business.”
Purdy is a former Most Valuable Player Award finalist, has guided the 49ers to a pair of NFC Championship Game appearances and was one play away from hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy back in February 2024. Nevertheless, some suggested earlier this spring that the 49ers should keep him in the final year of his inexpensive rookie contract because such individuals don’t view him as a top-tier QB1. Others previously wondered if Shanahan believed he could turn backup Mac Jones into somewhat of a Purdy 2.0 for the Niners.
More recently, a report revealed that quarterback-needy teams didn’t go out of their way to try to trade for Purdy this offseason.
“The whole system quarterback thing earlier in my career, it was just funny hearing that,” Purdy added. “And I’m not going to lie. I took that as like, ‘OK, I’m a guy who can come in and do what the coach says and win games because of that.’ So to me, that was more of a compliment, and I sort of ran with that. Outside of that, I don’t really buy into anything anyone says.”
The injury bug affected the 49ers’ locker room last season, as a 5-4 team ultimately finished the campaign at 6-11. 49ers general manager John Lynch and team CEO Jed York said plenty about how they view Purdy by signing him to a massive deal, and the 25-year-old sounds ready to show he’ll be worth every penny of that contract.
