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No matter how the rest of the week shakes out for the San Francisco 49ers, they will have a new quarterback starting under center when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come to town in Week 14. In all likelihood, the quarterback in question will be Brock Purdy, the man notoriously nicknamed Mr. Irrelevant who ended up playing 90 percent of the team’s snaps in Week 13 following Jimmy Garoppolo’s foot injury. If Purdy does earn his first start as a pro in Week 14, reporters asked Kyle Shanahan about the rookie quarterback’s demeanor, with the pride of Iowa State calling himself a perfectionist in the past, as both asked and transcribed by 49ers WebZone.
“I think he’s got the perfect demeanor in that he’s hard on himself and it’s not phony,” Shanahan said. “He believes that he can make any play and he believes he should make the right play and if he doesn’t make it the right way, he is disappointed at himself because he believes he’s capable of doing that. And then so do we, so I love someone like that because they’re not going to take the easy way out. They’re always going to put the pressure on themselves and that’s what gives him an opportunity to reach his max potential and I think he’s done that his whole life and that’s what’s got him to this moment. And that’s what’s going to keep him going in the right direction going forward.”
It’s encouraging to hear that Shanahan believes that Purdy can make any play in his book, as, apparently, the 49ers didn’t shake up their game plan when Garoppolo left the field on a cart.
Kyle Shanahan Isn’t Changing The San Francisco 49ers’ Offense
Asked another question elsewhere in his media session about whether the Niners “dumbed down” their offense when Purdy entered the game, Shanahan pushed back on the question, asserting that he didn’t shift to a “vanilla” offense.
“Nothing changes when he goes in,” Shanahan said. “It was exact same stuff that, you don’t go back to the vanilla stuff, you go to exactly our gameplan. He prepares for that all week. He did a good job being prepared for that. I tip my hat to [assistant quarterbacks coach] Klay [Kubiak] and to [quarterbacks coach] Brian Griese just because they work with him throughout the week. You don’t always get to see him do the reps, but that’s why they stay after with him and go over all that stuff and a credit to him to be ready to come in. Anything that had to adjust throughout the game, that was adjustments that we had to make on gameday for schematic situations, not because of our quarterback.”
Assuming Purdy is under center in Week 14 and beyond, then he will be tasked with running a dynamic offense with playmakers at every position and a top-tier offensive line. If Shanahan believes Purdy can make every play in his playbook, then the 49ers’ offense should remain good enough to compete after all, especially since Purdy graded out well in Week 13.
Brock Purdy Earned An Encouraging Grade From PFF In Week 13
Purdy finished out Week 13 with 25-37 passing for 210 yards, two touchdowns, an interception, and three sacks. In a vacuum, that stat line is hard to quantify, especially since it doesn’t tell the full story of how Purdy played against Miami. Fortunately, Pro Football Focus grades every snap in the NFL every single week and then compiles them into a metric that can be used to compare performances from comparable players across their grading window.
Playing 76 offensive snaps out of a possible 84, Purdy was given a 61.6 grade, which is higher than either of Trey Lance’s performances in 2022 but lower than Garoppolo’s non-final grade of 71.4. Though PFF doesn’t release a report on positive and negative plays to explain their grading’s reasoning, Purdy’s interception and the sack he took behind right tackle Mike McGlinchey certainly took down his overall score, whereas his two touchdown passes and crucial third-down completion while the rush was in his face probably served as the sort of “plus plays” that elevate a grade in PFF’s evaluation system. If Purdy can clean up his turnover-worthy plays, his overall grade could tick up rather quickly, considering the limited sample size.
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