The honeymoon phase is over for the San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Brock Purdy.
Purdy agreed to a contract extension that makes him one of the richest players in NFL history. He reportedly landed a five-year, $265 million deal with the team on Friday afternoon, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. It's a monumental pay raise over the rookie salary he made his first three years in the league as a seventh-round draft pick, which paid him an average of $934,000.
The new deal makes Purdy among the highest-paid in the league, too. It will earn him around $53 million per season, which is in line with both Jared Goff and Tua Tagovailoa. Only a handful of quarterbacks in the NFL earn more than him per season. Purdy's deal also includes $181 million in guaranteed money.
The 49ers now have their quarterback secured for the long haul, but they also will no longer enjoy the benefits of his extremely discounted contract.
The team took advantage of that discount, particularly in Purdy's first two seasons, when he led a loaded roster to two straight NFC championships and a Super Bowl appearance at the end of the 2023 campaign.
He was extremely productive in those seasons, throwing for a combined 5,654 yards and 44 touchdowns with 15 interceptions at a 68.7% clip. That covered his first 21 starts as he entered the lineup midway through his rookie year due to injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Purdy was an instant success, winning his first five starts and leading the team to two playoff wins that season to vault him from a mostly unknown final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft to a star. The Mr. Irrelevant nickname given to the last pick in each draft became a sarcastic moniker for the former Iowa State standout.
Niners, Purdy missed playoffs last season
After a 2023 season in which Purdy was near the top of the league in many metrics, including No. 1 in EPA per play, he and the 49ers took a step back in 2024.
San Francisco's offense as a whole dropped off after a rash of injuries hit the skill positions, and Purdy fell to ninth in EPA/play and 13th in QB rating while San Francisco finished 6-11 and well out of the playoff race. The decline reignited debates about whether Purdy is worthy of being one of the highest paid QBs in the league or if his early success was simply the product of a strong surrounding cast and a smart play-caller in head coach Kyle Shanahan.
Debates aside, 49ers leadership has always maintained they believe in Purdy as their franchise QB, and they showed it with this contract extension. Now it's up to Purdy to show he's the man for the job, even if his pay raise likely means the team will have to make tough decisions about which surrounding talent they'll be able to keep.
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