{"id":71227,"date":"2025-05-22T21:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T21:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/71227\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T21:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T21:54:09","slug":"brock-purdys-new-49ers-contract-looks-like-a-steal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/71227\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock Purdy\u2019s new 49ers contract looks like a steal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember last week, when it was first reported that the 49ers and quarterback Brock Purdy had agreed to a five-year, $265 million contract<\/a>? On the heels of that news, there was a loud and angry chorus from near and far, all singing the same three-syllable word:<\/p>\n

\u201cO-Ver-Paid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those people look awfully silly now that the details for that contract have been released<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As I suspected<\/a>, Purdy\u2019s new contract isn\u2019t merely team-friendly, it might as well have been a gift from their quarterback.<\/p>\n

Purdy is still going to make a tremendous amount of money. He can easily pay off those Toyotas he bought his offensive line last season and can hitch a fishing boat to the back of each one of them<\/a>. And Purdy\u2019s camp was able to work in some nice job security in the terms of the deal, too. It\u2019s a team-friendly deal, but it\u2019s fair, too.<\/p>\n

And like the vast majority of contracts in the NFL, that big headline number that comes out on Day 1 doesn\u2019t remotely resemble the actual deal.<\/p>\n

Purdy isn\u2019t really on a five-year contract. No, he\u2019s effectively on a two-year contract with a two-year team option.<\/p>\n

If Purdy is everything the 49ers want him to be, he and the team will likely be back at the negotiating table after the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s flexibility for the Niners in this new deal. If Purdy\u2019s next two seasons are an unmitigated disaster \u2014 a la Russell Wilson with the Broncos or Aaron Rodgers with the Jets\u2014 the 49ers can cut or trade him after 2026 and take one year of a big dead-cap hit. They\u2019ll be effectively free after that.<\/p>\n

Of course, that would be an issue for another Niners head coach and general manager to figure out, because if Purdy\u2019s career trends in that direction \u2014 and it would be a massive swerve\u00a0\u2014 neither Kyle Shanahan nor John Lynch will still be employed by San Francisco anymore.<\/p>\n

Also making an appearance in this deal: The April 1 guarantee structure the Niners put on the Brandon Aiyuk contract and, before that, the Colin Kaepernick deal. This works for both the Niners (the NFL cuts revenue distribution checks around this time) and Purdy, who avoids year-to-year decisions.<\/p>\n

For instance, if Purdy is on the Niners\u2019 roster April 1, 2026, his 2027 salary is guaranteed \u2014 hence why they might work a new deal between the 2026 and 2027 seasons.<\/p>\n

But the Niners don\u2019t have to do anything. They can stand pat and opt into two years of Purdy (2027, 2028) at a less-than-market rate after the \u201926 season. It will cost them $30.8 million and $57.6 million against the salary cap in 2027 and 2028, and leave them with only a roughly $15 million dead-cap hit in 2029 should they decide to move on after that.<\/p>\n

For reference, the Niners have a $15 million dead-cap hit for Arik Armstead for this upcoming season. The NFL\u2019s salary cap should be above $350 million by that point, too.<\/p>\n

This is an exceptionally reasonable contract for Purdy and the 49ers.<\/p>\n

And at no point in the four years does Purdy\u2019s pay become unreasonable, and at no point is he being underpaid. There are also clear out dates for the Niners, should they want an escape.<\/p>\n

If the Niners decide to go for the full four years, as written, they\u2019ll pay Purdy almost every cent of the roughly $175 million he\u2019s \u201cguaranteed\u201d in the deal. Yet at the same time, Purdy\u2019s average annual cap hit will be $30.5 million per year.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s wide-receiver money, not quarterback money.<\/p>\n

Seriously: The 49ers have Deebo Samuel counting for $34.1 million against their books this season. Purdy will go above that number one time \u2014 2028 \u2014 on the actionable portion of his current deal.<\/p>\n

Yes, Purdy will be paid well (though arguably under the market rate) but the Niners won\u2019t have that kind of money reflecting on the books. That\u2019s good accounting. (It was certainly enough to make my head spin.)<\/p>\n

And this deal will never approach $265 million paid or even five years. It\u2019s frankly a laughable sum given the true structure of this deal.<\/p>\n

If the Niners\u2019 front office can\u2019t build a quality team around Purdy with this fancy accounting, then they\u2019re simply not fit to run a team. Purdy will be paid less than Yetur Gross-Matos against the cap this season, less than Fred Warner next season, and is slated to make less than both Nick Bosa and Brandon Aiyuk in 2027.<\/p>\n

In all, this contract is anything but an albatross around the neck of the 49ers. It\u2019s crafty, it\u2019s clever, and it\u2019s altogether shockingly unburdensome.<\/p>\n

And no matter what happens with Purdy in the years to come, don\u2019t let anyone tell you this contract is something different.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: May 22, 2025 at 2:23 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remember last week, when it was first reported that the 49ers and quarterback Brock Purdy had agreed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,1921,3171,929,6,1161,252,2624,2623,9,2833],"class_list":{"0":"post-71227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-inside-sports","11":"tag-inside-the-san-francisco-49ers","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","16":"tag-sanfrancisco","17":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-columnists"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}