49ers QB Brock Purdy is Alarmingly Bad at the End of Close Games
Brock Purdy will enter his fourth season this year and we're starting to learn exactly who he is.
In the first half of games, he's great. He has thrown 35 touchdown passes and just 8 interceptions and his career passer rating before halftime is 106.9. Only Lamar Jackson has a higher passer rating in the first half since Purdy entered the league, and Jackson is a future Hall of Famer.
But Hall of Fame quarterbacks and Super Bowl champions build their reputations in the fourth quarter of close, one-score games when the pressure and the stakes are at their highest. That's when Joe Montana became Joe Montana.
In those situations, Purdy has thrown 4 touchdown passes, 7 interceptions and his passer rating is a mere 70.9 according to ESPN. He never has thrown a game-winning touchdown pass at the end of regulation, but he has thrown plenty of game-losing interceptions.
If Purdy can't put a team away in the third quarter, he becomes a liability in the fourth. His late-game interceptions were the biggest reason the 49ers missed the playoffs this season -- not Jake Moody's missed field goals. Purdy's turnovers were far more disastrous.
Franchise quarterbacks who make more than $50 million per season are supposed to play their best in crunch time -- that's what they're paid to do. But that's when Purdy plays his worst.
Compare him to Jimmy Garoppolo. When Garoppolo was the 49ers starting quarterback from 2017 to 2022, his passer rating in the fourth quarter of close games was 104 according to ESPN. For all of his flaws, he was mentally tough. As opposed to Purdy, who melts down.
Maybe Purdy will improve his mental toughness as he gets older, or maybe he simply isn't clutch. We'll find out.