Will Kyle Shanahan Give Brock Purdy More Control of the 49ers Offense?

Kyle Shanahan treats quarterbacks like puppets.

Grant Cohn | Jul 19, 2024

Jan 28, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) celebrates with the George Halas Trophy after winning the NFC Championship football game against the Detroit Lions at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

Kyle Shanahan treats quarterbacks like puppets.

He doesn't let them make many decisions. Doesn't allow them to audible or set the protections at the line of scrimmage. Doesn't encourage them to call their own plays or go no huddle. He wants them to listen and do what they're told.

Which made sense when the quarterback was Jimmy Garoppolo. He wasn't a good decision-maker or improviser. Bad things happened the longer he held the ball. It was reasonable to want him to follow directions and get rid of the ball to the first open receiver as quickly as possible.

Brock Purdy is different. Purdy is much more professional than Garoppolo, which means Purdy is more invested in the offense and has a better understanding of it.

For now, Purdy allows Shanahan to treat him like a puppet because he's young and he hasn't gotten his big payday yet. But next year, the 49ers will make Purdy one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL. So eventually, Purdy might not be so quiet.

If the 49ers pay Purdy like he's an elite quarterback but continue to treat him like he's a rookie, he might say something about it. In a polite way after a loss, he might say that he needs more control over the offense at the line of scrimmage. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady certainly had control of their offenses.

If Purdy is the cerebral, hardworking franchise quarterback the 49ers portray him to be, then they have to turn the offense over to him sooner rather than later.

Published Jul 19, 2024

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.