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Has the NFL Caught Up to 49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy?

Will the real Brock Purdy please stand up?

Grant Cohn

Sep 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) runs with the ball against the Minnesota Vikings during the second quarter U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Sep 15, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) runs with the ball against the Minnesota Vikings during the second quarter U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
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Brock Purdy hasn't been quite the same since he lost to the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas.

Heading into the game, he was the overwhelming favorite to win the MVP Award. But he threw four interceptions and lost. And since that game, his production has been modest.

In Purdy's last seven starts, he has won four games, lost three, thrown six touchdown passes and six interceptions, fumbled once and posted a passer rating of 87. That's about as average as it gets. And he's playing on the best team in football.

To be fair, three of those games were in the postseason against quality defenses. And he threw four of those six interceptions in one game -- the Ravens game. Which means he has committed just three turnovers in his past six games, which is respectable.

But Purdy also has thrown just six touchdown passes in his past seven starts, which is downright Jimmy Garoppoloesque. When Purdy first took over as the 49ers' starting quarterback, teams couldn't keep him out of the end zone. Now, he's settling for field goals more and more. The 49ers kicked six in Week 1 alone.

Now that he doesn't have his safety blanket in Christian McCaffrey, he seems far less confident. Before, he always knew he could dump the ball off to McCaffrey if he was under pressure. Now, he's holding the ball and getting sacked far more than in the past. It's like he's doing a Jimmy Garoppolo impression. A good one.

Will the real Brock Purdy please stand up?

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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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