49ers Film Room: What kind of quarterback is Brock Purdy? Part 3 - the playmaker

He isn’t viewed as a game-changer or play-maker because of 1) the talent around him, 2) draft status, and 3) because he doesn’t have the gaudy physical traits of Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen.

In part 1, I broke down why the narrative on Purdy is what it is by showing what his limitations are that are a big reason why he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Until the playoffs, in the 49ers biggest regular season moments, when he needed to lead comeback or game-winning drives, he could not do it. To be fair, the game in Cleveland was lost when Jake Moody missed the game winning field goal but Brock’s poor play in that game partially put them in a hole.

In Minnesota and at home versus Cincinnati, a two game stretch where they did not have Trent Williams or Deebo Samuel, Purdy was unable to generate enough production on his own to carry the load, even with a healthy Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey, and George Kittle. His late game turnovers in that game shutdown any conversation around his MVP candidacy by analysts with large platforms.

The 49ers and Purdy improved after that, hard as that is to believe about a team with that much talent, in part because he stopped putting the ball in harm’s way and making difficult throws. Until Baltimore. That game effectively might have ended his chance at an MVP.

Whatever the case is about how one feels about his MVP bid, the larger picture it distracts both sides of the debate from is the fact that he is generally a very good quarterback who has elevated Kyle Shanahan’s offense beyond what any other 49ers quarterback has done since Shanahan took over. Yes, the talent around him is elite, but it’s safe to say that the same offense with Jimmy again this year might not have looked this explosive.

For one thing, for better or worse, Garoppolo did not have an ability to play off schedule outside the pocket and instead relied on being a risk taker over the middle of the field. He made some plays out of structure but when it happened, you held your breath. That’s not the case with Brock, who’s free-wheeling athletic ability has allowed him to bail the offense out at times and propelled them into the Super Bowl.

In fact, that’s the reason why he’s more of a play-making type of quarterback than anything. In the last article, I said that he was a game manager but not in the negative way it’s typically portrayed. In fact, that’s the first thing Shanahan himself stated was most important: can the quarterback manage the game? If yes, can he then run the system the way it’s designed? If yes, can he also make plays when the answers aren’t there. If yes again, a third time, then you have a consistently good quarterback.

For Purdy, there are three ways he elevates the offense beyond what anyone else has been able to do in Shanahan’s system since 2017. The three areas where Purdy excelled over his predecessors: 1) Extending plays, 2) making plays outside the pocket, and 3) pushing the ball downfield.

Extending plays

This year, Purdy showed that he can both extend plays with his legs as a runner and extend plays out of structure as a thrower. As a thrower, this was evident in week 1 versus Pittsburgh right away.

The right side of the offensive line this year is the weak link. They had several misses in pass protection all season long and the right tackle position got worse after Mike McGlinchey left in free agency, Purdy was able to alleviate some of that talent drain with his own ability to move around the pocket while avoiding defenders who broke through the blocking.

The biggest culprits in pass protection were Spencer Burford and Colton McKivitz, the right guard and right tackle combination that started this season. Burford was benched for Jon Feliciano and McKivitz is a prime candidate to be replaced this offseason.

The play is a flood/levels concept to the middle of the field with Aiyuk running the deeper dig route and McCaffrey running a shorter in-breaking route underneath him. The defense ends up playing cover-1 robber from a 2-high pre-snap shell.

The ironic thing about this play is that if Purdy had a clean pocket, I’m not sure he would have gotten a positive play out of this because the Steelers had it well-covered. But up front, Burford got beat inside and the pressure forced Purdy off his spot and forced him to climb the pocket. The robber safety comes down to the intermediate zone and takes away McCaffrey as Purdy is climbing through the pocket.

Aiyuk keeps running his route across the field as Purdy sees him and delivers a strike on the move with Patrick Peterson chasing him across. Purdy never panics and throws the pass as he approaches the line of scrimmage. Aiyuk does the rest.

On scrambles, Purdy registered 17 scrambles that went for 15 first downs, 88%.

In the NFC Championship game in the second half, Purdy had 3 scramble attempts that went for 52 yards, including a 21 yard scramble on 3rd-and-4 late in the fourth quarter on the drive to ice the game and go up by 10 points. His ability to escape pressure in the pocket and make plays using his legs cannot be overlooked and is easily one of his best attributes as a quarterback.

Off schedule throws/throws outside the pocket

Purdy really earned his reputation this season with his athleticism and plays he made while outside of the pocket. Purdy was 10th in EPA/play on throws outside the pocket this season. In 2022, he was ranked 6th in throws outside the pocket. In week 1, Purdy picked up where he left off last season.

The 49ers are in empty here with Kittle and Deebo aligned to the left and a route combination where they look to be putting a high-low conflict on the defense with Kittle up the seam and Deebo on a whip route back inside.

The defense sends a 5-man pressure and plays a 3-deep/3-under zone behind it. Minkah Fitzpatrick walks up late but Purdy knows he’s likely coming because the pass protection has a 3-man half slide to the right so there will likely be an unblocked blitzer off the edge.

Purdy takes the snap and feels the rush from Fitzpatrick and spins out of this path at the last possible second. He keeps his eyes downfield and instead of tucking to run for a minimal gain, he extends the play and finds Deebo open enough for a throw back across that side of the field to him and Deebo catches it for a first down.

In the NFC Championship, one of the key plays of the game was a first down throw to Kyle Juszczyk on the left sideline just beyond the sticks.

A sack seemed all but inevitable. Even Shanahan admitted that he was basically onto the next call on his play sheet looking for a play he could run on 2nd and 20 because he thought Purdy was sacked as well. But Purdy wriggled out of this jam and exploded out of the pocket looking for a downfield throw. He fired a strike to Juszczyk on the sideline who hauled it in and kept the drive moving.

He had some pretty impressive plays outside the pocket too.

Throws to McCaffrey, George Kittle, and Brandon Aiyuk were among his best outside of the structure of the play.

Throwing deep

I covered this in the first article in this series this week but Purdy was among the league’s best throwing deep this year. Outside of the normal box score stats, per Pro Football Focus (PFF), Purdy led the NFL in passing grade on deep throws (throws 21+ air yards downfield), is ranked 7th in big time throws at that distance (PFF), 5th overall in big time throws (PFF classifies a “big-time throw is best described as a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window), is 4th in the NFL in completed air yards per pass (per NFL NextGenStats), and leads the league in EPA/play (per RBSDM).

The only caveat to his deep passing grade that should be highlighted is that Purdy ranked 39th out of 40 quarterbacks in average depth of target on throws 21+ yards downfield (26.9 aDOT), beating out only Jimmy Garoppolo who had an aDOT on those throws (26.5 aDOT). Not a huge deal but it is meaningful to mention that his throws at that distance were shorter than the everyone else.

Still, the distance thrown on those passes is less important than what’s actually going on on those passes, their placement and accuracy and how he got to those throws being the critical aspect of them.

On his deep touchdown pass to George Kittle this season, Purdy threw what was perhaps the best throw of his career, if not certainly top 3 all-time in his short career. He hit Kittle for a 66 yard strike down the right sideline from the inside of a phone booth.

The play call is a similar call to their “drift swirl” play action pass but it’s instead an under center 5-step drop back and throw to Aiyuk on the drift route. The 49ers get the same added benefit of play action with McCaffrey’s motion as he pulls a defender out of the throwing window since the Jaguars are in man coverage cover-1.

Purdy hits the top of his drop back, plants, and almost uncorks it over the middle to Aiyuk but sees the safety sitting there ready to drive on it. The safety barely retreats to the deep middle, allowing him the opportunity to drive on the pass. Purdy pulls it down, resets, and heaves it from a phone booth out to Kittle down the sideline. The placement and accuracy and the ability to reset and find his third option in the progression in the face of pressure are what actually make this deep throw impressive, not the total travel distance.

Here’s a cut-up of some of his best deep throws this season.

Purdy versus pressure

Speaking of Purdy under pressure, and this is an area I did not mention above or, Purdy has very good tape and stats with throws under pressure. This season under pressure, Purdy finished 11th overall in passing grade under pressure per PFF, 15th overall in big time throw rate at 6.2% (Mahomes was 14th at 6.3%) and finished 10/15, 112 yards, and four touchdowns against cover-0 pressure this season.

This was something he did very well with right away last season in his first game action as the new starter versus Miami. Perhaps his best throw of game came when he beat the blitz on third down to George Kittle on a short post route over the logo of the field. It was the same pressure package that recorded the sack on Jimmy Garoppolo in the first quarter, the play he got injured on.

49ers are running their “chevy” concept, a two man route combination to the right with a skinny post and a “tony” route which is just a stick route out of the backfield with the option to cut outside versus the leverage.

The defense has seven defenders hugged up to the line of scrimmage and presnap this looks like a cover-0 blitz. Purdy has to figure out where the rushers are coming from. The pass protection slides to the left to the widest and most dangerous rusher on the offense’s left edge.

The rush only comes from four defenders but since the offensive line slide to the left, the free rusher comes off the right edge of the offense, and this makes him Purdy’s responsibility. Purdy sees it and fires the pass just before he gets hit. From snap to throw, he released the ball in 1.78 seconds. That’s some fast recognition. 

In his Football Morning in America column on Monday morning after the Sunday games, Peter King wrote that he talked with Shanahan about this play, saying:

“I thought this was Purdy’s play of the game,” I (Peter King) said.

“I did too,” Shanahan said. “Especially with what they were doing to us. They were coming after Brock and doing a good job of taking our quick throws away. This was a huge job of Brock signaling something to change the route [for Kittle].”

Purdy recognized the blitz pre-snap and made a route adjustment on Kittle’s route to shorten the post route. The route is normally run at 6 steps before breaking to the post. Kittle shortened his route to 5 steps.

The change is significant because on a 6-step post route, the inside foot is the lead foot. On Kittle’s route, notice how he changes his stance to the outside foot up, this shortens the route to a 5-step route by the receiver. The adjustment was likely communicated pre-snap in the huddle because there is nothing on the all-22 to suggest it was made at the line and Kittle lines up right away with his outside foot up.That’s one hell of an adjustment.

On Purdy’s first touchdown throw in week three against the Giants, the Giants weren’t holding anything back this night. Purdy was blizted 33 on 39 drop backs. He was under pressure on 18 snaps. They weren’t hiding their intentions in this game. Wink Martindale, the Giants defensive coordinator at the time, wanted to get after Purdy and make him uncomfortable.

On this play, they have six defenders walked up to the line of scrimmage and five defensive backs in off-man to cover the five eligibles. With five to block in pass protection, this meant that Purdy was responsible for the free rusher, wherever that rusher came from.

The play call has a built in check for an all out blitz with a concept called “Pile,” an out route with a “now” quick slant underneath it, both designated as the hot receivers. The Giants are playing cover-0, an all out blitz with no safety help over the top for the defenders covering the five eligible receivers.

Rookie receiver Ronnie Bell (No. 10) is in the slot running the pile route to the front corner of the end zone with Giants corner Deonte Banks (No. 25) in coverage. Christian McCaffrey is out wide running the now slant under Bell’s out route. Bobby Okereke (No. 58) is in coverage on McCaffrey out wide, confirming man coverage.

The free rusher is Oshane Ximines (No. 53) off the left of the offensive line. He actually lined up offsides and drew a penalty on the play which the 49ers obviously declined. Trent Williams smartly widens with Ximines off the edge to get him to widen before he turns to block inside and this buy’s Purdy another half second to throw. Purdy sees the rusher coming off the edge and quickly rifles the pass out to Bell in the front corner of the end zone with high level anticipation.

He probably could’ve hit McCaffrey on the now slant underneath, the easier throw but that’s not who Purdy is. Instead, Purdy throws the pass with anticipation before Bell is into his break. He’s going to take more chances downfield and he’s making the ceiling for this offense higher than it was with previous quarterbacks on the roster.

While not a cover-0 pressure, Purdy still showed tremendous poise under pressure when he took a nasty hit as he threw the ball to Deebo over the middle on a completion in the NFC Championship game.

This is a similar play to the one above with Kittle from the Jaguars game this season. The play call has Deebo running a mini dagger over the middle and McCaffrey on a motion out of the backfield. It is the same general idea of running play action without running play action. The motion from McCaffrey pulls a defender out of the box so that there is a better throwing window.

The Lions are rushing 5 and playing cover-1 behind it. There is a breakdown in pass protection as Alim McNeill (No. 54), rode Jake Brendel away from center and looped back inside to rush Purdy. This gave him a wide open rushing lane and free hit on Purdy. Purdy stood in and delivered a strike to Deebo over the middle.

Outlook

Lots of quarterbacks throughout NFL history have possessed one or two of those traits that Shanahan mentioned above. We just happen to live in a period in time where at least 10-15 quarterbacks have all 3 of those traits to varying degrees, Purdy being one of them. So it’s not at all clear why he isn’t given the same status as some of the others viewed as the league’s best.

I think in general he isn’t viewed as a game-changer or play-maker because of 1) the talent around him, 2) draft status, and 3) because he doesn’t have the gaudy physical traits of Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. He’s on the smaller side for a quarterback and doesn’t have the arm strength so he’s viewed as a byproduct of the system because how can a quarterback like that succeed in the NFL if he doesn’t possess those physical traits.

Arm limitations aside, which he has more than compensated for, there is valid concern about how his body type would hold up over the course of a full 17 game schedule. In a league where maybe 10 or 11 quarterbacks a year play all of their games, that’s not an insignificant concern. But Purdy did play all of the games he was capable of playing in and quieted any concern about his previous arm injury. There was some concern over his repeated stinger issues around weeks 15 and 16. And his concussion in week seven.

But for the most part, he was 100% healthy. Part of that is because he’s athletic enough to escape danger. And he’s doing it at the right time for the 49ers in the playoffs. Win or lose in the Super Bowl, it cannot be argued that he holds the team back or is a passenger on the bus or the arsonist putting out his own fire. Purdy earned the accolades this year with his play on the field. For now at least, the 49ers and Shanahan have their guy. He should only get better from here as the experience grows.