‘Mr. Irrelevant’ gets the last laugh and will be smiling all the way to the bank. An historic franchise, the San Francisco 49ers, have their franchise quarterback.
San Francisco and Brock Purdy agreed to a new lucrative five-year contract worth $265 million on Friday, that includes $181 million in overall guaranteed money, Purdy’s agent confirmed the details of the agreement to NFL insider Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Purdy was previously signed through the 2025 season on his four-year, $3.7 million rookie deal. While he was markedly underpaid given his overall production during his initial contract, he said at the conclusion of the 2024 campaign that he just wanted to come to terms on a new deal relatively quickly, so he would not be a distraction to the team.
“It’s my first time going through this all,” he said, according to Tim Kawakami of the San Francisco Standard. “I don’t really know what the next step is. But we’ll see. Obviously, I’d like to get it done sooner rather than later, just so I can come back to work and get going with all the guys here.
“I’m not really sure what it’s all going to look like or entail. But I know that I’m the guy for this organization, and I can do what it takes to help lead us to where we want to go.”
He also told reporters he was not looking for any drama and wanted to get the negotiations behind him so the team could focus on the season in front of them.
While there still was not a deal set in stone at the onset of April’s offseason training program, the signal caller was in attendance and took part in voluntary activities.
Purdy’s contract was an interesting one, to say the least, heading into the offseason after the 2024 season.
After all, he was the final pick of the 2022 NFL draft out of Iowa State University, and some in the media have raised serious questions if he was talented enough to justify a massive extension. But he also led the 49ers on two deep playoff runs in his first two seasons under center and put himself in the catbird’s seat to land a significant raise more in line with many of his peers.
Embed from Getty Images“Famously the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, Purdy has played for peanuts through three years,” Kevin Patra of NFL.com wrote in January. “His base salary in 2024 was $985,000, a comical number for a starting quarterback, in which salaries have ballooned, with nine making $50-plus million per season.”
Purdy took over as the team’s starter late in the 2022 campaign and won all five of his regular season starts prior to leading the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game. Yet he suffered an injury in that loss against the Philadelphia Eagles and was limited to just four passing attempts.
Still, the late season run made him the unquestioned starter in 2023. All he did was make the Pro Bowl while completing 69.4 percent of his passes for 4,280 yards, 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. This time, the 49ers advanced all the way to Super Bowl LVIII, where they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, 25-22.
It was an unbelievable amount of success for Purdy right out of the gates, especially in context of his draft position and overall expectations.
Playing for head coach Kyle Shanahan, who is a great offensive mind, in an offense filled with elite playmakers in running back Christian McCaffrey, who they got in a trade from the Carolina Panthers, wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, tight end George Kittle and wide receiver Deebo Samuel, just to name a few, made life easier than it was for many other quarterbacks.
And that is part of the lengthy Purdy discussion and perhaps reason for caution and concern when it comes to this deal.
Even with all of that, he led the deep playoff runs and put up the statistics and now has the new contract to show for it.
Unfortunately for the 49ers, the 2024 campaign was an injury-riddled one as the team went a disappointing 6-11 and missed the playoffs entirely.
Purdy went 6-9 as a starter with many injuries to his supporting cast, which stifled some of his individual momentum heading into contract negotiations. But he still earned the bag and a stamp of approval from the front office with this deal.
