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Shannon Sharpe Says Brock Purdy is a Product of the 49ers System

Sharpe is interesting, because he played for Kyle Shanahan's father, Mike Shanahan.

Grant Cohn

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Brock Purdy has posted elite numbers in his brief career, but does that make him an elite quarterback?

Shannon Sharpe says no. And Sharpe is interesting, because he played for Kyle Shanahan's father, Mike Shanahan.

"No, he's not an elite quarterback. He's a product of the system. It's more a credit to Kyle Shanahan and what he has done. I'm not sure if we remove Deebo Samuel, Kyle Shanahan and Brandon Aiyuk that we would still see this Brock Purdy. He's a product of the system. Now, that's not to take away from what he's doing. It's OK for him to be in the MVP discussion and not be Patrick Mahomes or Tua or an elite quarterback. He still has to go out there and operate -- he just doesn't have to do as much as say those other guys. If he had to switch places with Patrick Mahomes and do what he does, I'm not sure Brock Purdy could do that. But in this system, the ability to run the football with Christian McCaffrey and all the weapons, get it in Aiyuk's hands, Deebo's hands, Kittle's hands, and let them do the work. So no, he's not elite by any stretch of the imagination."

I agree with Sharpe that Purdy isn't an elite quarterback -- nobody qualifies as elite after 13 career games. Purdy has to prove he can play consistently excellent football for longer.

But I disagree with Sharpe saying Purdy is a product of the system. To me, that implies that Purdy would be no good or a backup quarterback on another team, and that simply is not the case. Purdy is a good starting quarterback. Jimmy Garoppolo was a product of the system, as we can see plainly now that he's struggling with the Raiders. Purdy would play much better than Garoppolo if he were on the Raiders.

Purdy simply is a perfect fit for Kyle Shanahan's offense, the way Jalen Hurts is the perfect fit for the Eagles offense and Joe Montana was a perfect fit for Bill Walsh's offense. There's nothing wrong with playing in a system that fits.

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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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