Late last week, the San Francisco 49ers gave quarterback Brock Purdy a five-year, $265 million extension with $100 million fully guaranteed at signing that makes him the seventh-highest paid quarterback in the NFL by average annual value ($53 million).
With this new contract, many fans and analysts are taking this time to discuss Purdy’s ability, and considering he’s now paid more per year than Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes and Matt Stafford, many believe he’s overpaid and overrated.
However, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz recently went through each position and made an argument for the most underrated player to line up at each spot, and for the most important position on the football field, quarterback, he chose Purdy.
“Does Purdy’s huge contract extension mean he is no longer underrated? On the contrary, some of the criticism of the extension suggests people don’t understand how much better Purdy has been compared to the other Shanahan quarterbacks in San Francisco,” Schatz wrote on Friday.
Last year, San Francisco’s offense was missing some of their top weapons, and while the team struggled to win games, finishing with a 6-9 record, Purdy completed 65.9% of his passes for 3,864 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, good for a 96.1 passer rating.
In 40 career games, he’s completed 67.5% of his passes for 9,518 yards, 64 touchdowns and 27 interceptions with a 104.9 passer rating while leading the team to a 23-13 record in his 36 starts over his three professional seasons.
Unfortunately, the conversation surrounding Purdy is going to bounce back and forth until he wins 49ers a Super Bowl or leaves and has success with another franchise. Until then, there will be Purdy believers and those who think any quarterback could step into Shanahan’s system and have success right away.
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