The 49ers Could End Up Paying Brock Purdy More than $65 Million Per Year
If you think Brock Purdy would be worth a lot of money on the open market now, just wait until he's eligible to sign a contract extension next year.
The current rate for a good young quarterback right now is $55 million per season. Trevor Lawrence just signed an extension worth that amount with the Jaguars and he hasn't accomplished much in his three-year career. He's still profiting off his college career. And yet that's how much money he apparently is worth.
Which means Purdy will be worth much more than $55 million next season, assuming he stays healthy.
Between now and the time Purdy will become eligible for an extension, the following quarterbacks will sign lucrative extensions of their own: Tua Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott and Jordan Love. Each of these players likely will get more than $55 million per season. So by next year, Purdy likely will be able to command roughly $65 million per season. And there's nothing the 49ers can do about it.
They probably would like to extend him now, because his price tag goes up every minute they don't, but the Collective Bargaining Agreement won't allow them to. A player has to be in the NFL for three seasons before he can sign an extension. So the 49ers and Purdy have to wait, which is good for Purdy and not so good for the 49ers.
I'm guessing they've flirted with the idea of not paying Purdy, trading him and replacing him with another quarterback on a rookie deal. But the 49ers have been so bad at drafting and acquiring quarterbacks the past two decades, they almost have no choice but to pay Purdy whatever he wants.