The 49ers Could End Up Paying Brock Purdy More than $65 Million Per Year

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.
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) throws a pass against the Kansas City Chiefs in the second half in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 11, 2024; Paradise, Nevada, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) throws a pass against the Kansas City Chiefs in the second half in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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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.


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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.