49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy Should Play Out his Contract

Bet on yourself, Brock. Don't take the first offer that comes your way.
Dec 1, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) moves out of the pocket to throw a pass against the Buffalo Bills in the second quarter at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
Dec 1, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) moves out of the pocket to throw a pass against the Buffalo Bills in the second quarter at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images / Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
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If Brock Purdy truly believes he's a franchise quarterback, he'll reject the 49ers' contract offer, play out the final season of his deal and restart extension negotiations next year.

Or, if he thinks he's a replaceable bridge quarterback like Sam Darnold or Geno Smith, he can take what the 49ers offer him, and he can give himself some financial security. Not bad for Mr. Irrelevant.

Because let's be realistic. The 49ers aren't going to pay Purdy like he's a franchise quarterback coming off the season he just had. At least, they shouldn't. He just went 6-9 and got hurt twice on a team that had lots of injuries but also had lots of stars, and he couldn't elevate them.

If Purdy signs an extension this offseason, he'll sign a team-friendly deal. The 49ers simply can't be certain that he will bounce back to the player he was in 2023 and maintain that level of production for the length of his extension. It's just as likely that he'll continue to be the mediocre quarterback he was in 2024. They need to see more before they pay him like the Bills pay Josh Allen.

Purdy should want to show them more. He should want to put his best foot forward before he negotiates his extension and he should feel confident that last season was a mere outlier.

Bet on yourself, Brock. Don't take the first offer that comes your way.

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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.