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How the 49ers Can Make Brock Purdy's Job Easier

The 49ers are having a good season offensively, and yet Brock Purdy's numbers are down. What's the disconnect?

Grant Cohn

Nov 17, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) scrambles away from Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Michael Jerrell (65) in the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images
Nov 17, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) scrambles away from Seattle Seahawks offensive tackle Michael Jerrell (65) in the third quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images / David Gonzales-Imagn Images
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SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers are having a good season offensively, and yet Brock Purdy's numbers are down. What's the disconnect?

Through 10 games, the 49ers offense ranks second in yards gained and eighth in points scored. Those are good numbers, especially considering Brock Purdy currently ranks just 20th in completion percentage and 14th in quarterback rating.

If you've watched all of Purdy's snaps this season, you know he's playing better than those numbers indicate. He's holding the ball longer than ever, pushing it down the field farther than ever and throwing into tighter windows than ever. He's also scrambling like his life depends on it. He's making some extremely difficult plays.

But where are the easy throws we used to see so often in Kyle Shanahan's offense?

In 2019 when Jimmy Garoppolo was the 49ers' quarterback, he threw 76 screen passes -- tied for fifth most in the NFL that season. We called those passes "Jimmy Gimmies" and they were the foundation of the 49ers' passing game when Garoppolo was the quarterback, presumably because he was so limited.

This year, Purdy has thrown just 18 screen passes, which ranks 30th among quarterbacks. And his 6.3 screen pass percentage ranks 54th out of 56 quarterbacks, presumably because he's so talented. Shanahan wants to push the ball down the field.

But the most talented quarterback in the league, Patrick Mahomes, currently leads the league with 55 screen passes. He also led the league last season with 97 screen passes.

If Andy Reid can scheme up easy throws behind the line of scrimmage for Mahomes and Shanahan could do that for Garoppolo, he should be able to do it for Purdy, too.

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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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