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49ers QB Brock Purdy Says He's Not Allowed to Audible

It's Year 3 for Brock Purdy in the NFL and Kyle Shanahan still won't take the training wheels off the offense for him.

Grant Cohn

Oct 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) stands on the field before the start of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
Oct 20, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) stands on the field before the start of the game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- It's Year 3 for Brock Purdy in the NFL and Kyle Shanahan still won't take the training wheels off the offense for him.

Most NFL quarterbacks have the autonomy to call audibles at the line of scrimmage, especially veteran, cerebral quarterbacks such as Purdy.

And yet, on 3rd and 1 in the first quarter this past Sunday against the Chiefs, Purdy walked to the line of scrimmage and saw that Kansas City had nine defenders in the box selling out to stop the run. Instead of calling an audible and passing the ball as most other NFL quarterbacks would do, Purdy simply handed off to Jordan Mason who gained no yards, and then the 49ers punted.

Why didn't Purdy audible?

“Usually, we just have an answer built into the play," Purdy explained. "And so, if we do have like an all-out blitz or something, we usually have an answer of where I should be hitting or where I should be going. And there's very rare occasions where we walk up to line and we get a look and it's, ‘Oh shoot, they got us.’ And then I'm supposed to randomly make up an audible. There's nothing like that. We usually always have an answer for pressures, all-out blitz and things like that. So that's on me to get to the right guy.”

TRANSLATION: No, Purdy is not allowed to "randomly make up an audible" at the line of scrimmage. Shanahan's incredible plays are supposed to have answers for everything the defense can throw at the 49ers. Usually. Except for when Shanahan doesn't have the answers, and all Purdy can do is think, "Oh shoot, they got us," and run a play that's doomed from the start. Like the one on 3rd and 1.

Time for Shanahan to hand the reins to Purdy.

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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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