Quarterback Brock Purdy is not coming off the kind of statistical season that led to him finishing fourth in NFL MVP voting in 2023.
Purdy’s passer rating dropped from an NFL-best 113.0 to 96.1 last season, ranking him 12th in the NFL. But NBC Sports analyst Chris Simms, who played five NFL seasons, was impressed with certain elements of Purdy’s game.
“I was encouraged by a lot of stuff I saw from Brock Purdy last year,” Simms said on the latest "49ers Talk," which was released Monday. “I feel like he did more off-schedule, more ‘wow’ plays, more ‘wow’ throws, making some more happen when it wasn’t there to be had than he had the two years previous to that.
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Simms is in the midst of divulging his league-wide quarterback rankings. After placing Purdy at No. 17 before the 2024 season, Simms now includes him in his top 15 for this year.
Purdy incorporated more scrambling into his game last season, rushing for 323 yards and five touchdowns with 33 first downs on 66 rushing attempts.
Simms acknowledges that Purdy showed a new side as he held the ball longer and might have tried to overcome some of the 49ers’ offensive deficiencies a year ago.
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That said, Simms also added that there were times when Purdy got away from what he does best.
“He can’t lose the surgicality in running the offense and being an absolute machine with making the right decisions play after play after play,” Simms said. “And that’s, to me, where he took a step back last year. Where I would go, man, at times I felt like he put too much on his shoulders.”
The 49ers rewarded Purdy this offseason with a five-year contract extension that pays him an average of $53 million per season. That huge $265 million payout might put a lot of pressure on Purdy to live up to his contract.
But Simms does not see it that way.
“I think last year was the a-lot-of-pressure year,” Simms said. “And I think that’s why some of the play was inconsistent.”
The 49ers’ decision to award the 25-year-old with a big contract sends a signal to everyone that Purdy is the franchise’s quarterback for both now and the foreseeable future.
And that, according to Simms, should be a load off Purdy’s mind.
“I think this year is like, OK, they believe in me. It’s official. I’m the man,” Simms said of Purdy. “They’re not benching me. I’m making $53 million a year, now let me get back to my roots and become the machine that I was.
“And that’s what I expect from him. I really do.”