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Is 49ers QB Brock Purdy Developing Bad Habits This Offseason?

If Purdy plays hero ball this season, he'll struggle. He needs to continue to play the way he has the past two years.

Grant Cohn

Aug 18, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) looks to throw a pass against the New Orleans Saints in the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 18, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) looks to throw a pass against the New Orleans Saints in the first quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports / Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
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Brock Purdy is a good quarterback who's having a rough training camp.

He's throwing almost one interception per day because he's making questionable decisions and forcing passes we wouldn't expect him to attempt during games. When asked about these interceptions, Purdy says he's testing his limits and seeing what he can and can't get away with. The idea is if he makes mistakes in practice, he won't make the same ones in the games. Sound logic.

But then he played against the Saints in a preseason game on Sunday and made the same mistakes he had been making in camp. Namely, he forced passes into tight coverage and almost got intercepted. He threw one pass across the field that tight end Eric Saubert had to knock down like a defensive back just so it wouldn't get picked off.

To be fair, Purdy played without all but two starters on offense, and those starters were Jake Brendel and Colton McKivitz. And Kyle Shanahan didn't call plays. And the Saints played their starters on defense. So he was set up to fail.

But he didn't have to make matters worse, which is what he almost did. He could have checked down or thrown the ball away and made smart decisions he could live with. Instead, he tried to be a hero and show the world that he can be special even when he doesn't have his All World supporting cast. And he flopped.

If Purdy plays hero ball this season, he'll struggle. He needs to continue to play the way he has the past two years.

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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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