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49ers QB Brock Purdy Needs to Raise His Game After the Bye Week

When Purdy turns the ball over this season, the 49ers are 1-4. When he doesn't turn the ball over, they're 3-0. Which means he needs to be less of a playmaker and more of a game manager.

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) prepares to pass against the Dallas Cowboys during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) prepares to pass against the Dallas Cowboys during the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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In certain ways, Brock Purdy is having a terrific season.

He's playing without Christian McCaffrey which has raised the degree of difficulty. He's fitting the ball into tight windows and throwing farther downfield than ever before. Plus he has become one of the best scramblers in the NFL.

But Purdy also has turned the ball over 9 times this season. He's one of the league leaders in turnovers.

When Purdy turns the ball over this season, the 49ers are 1-4. When he doesn't turn the ball over, they're 3-0. Which means he needs to be less of a playmaker and more of a game manager.

Purdy spent the first half of the season holding the ball forever and taking long shots down the field, presumably to prove that he's not a mere system quarterback and that he's worth top-of-the-market money, which will be more than $60 million per season as soon as next year. And six of his seven interceptions came on plays when he held the ball for more than 2.5 seconds.

Purdy is trying to do entirely too much. He needs to play like he did the past two seasons when his numbers were much better. And that means he needs to check the ball down and stop hunting the big plays. And when Christian McCaffrey comes back, I assume Purdy will check the ball down because McCaffrey is the best receiver on the team.

Expect Purdy to raise his game and protect the football down the stretch.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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