Dieter Kurtenbach: The end of the 49ers' season is a referendum on Brock Purdy

Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News on Dec 3, 2024

Published in Football

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The 49ers’ season is over.

Ignore the nonsense being pushed about this team winning out and making the playoffs. Cue the famous Jim Mora Sr. soundbite:

“Playoffs? Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game.”

And yet there is so much to play for in the season’s final five games.

The beauty of the NFL is that every week, everyone is playing for their jobs. You’re either getting better or getting worse, and you don’t want to be in the latter category ahead of what should be a dramatic, resetting offseason in Santa Clara, Calif.

So, in the final weeks, the young players who are now given a shot at serious playing time because of injury or a depth chart reshuffle need to point their arrows up. The older players, whose arrows might be pointing down, need to level out. Coaches have five weeks to prove they’re not this team’s problem.

Oh, and then there’s the $60 million-per-season question that still needs to be answered.

The 49ers brass — Kyle Shanahan, John Lynch, and CEO Jed York chief among them — have not wavered on their commitment to quarterback Brock Purdy. (By all accounts, York has not wavered on Shanahan or Lynch, either.) The money for a massive contract extension is budgeted for this upcoming offseason.

But, at the risk of over-legitimizing it, the question of whether the Niners should hand Purdy that massive new contract still lingers among the fan base and the media. And it’s not just the unhinged portions of those groups pushing that idea, either.

That’s not to be overlooked. As we found out with the Trey Lance draft pick, the Niners’ brass can be influenced by both fans and the media. (We’ll all take the L on that one.)

So, while the money is ready, the contract hasn’t been drawn up just yet, and it’s more than fair to say that Purdy’s arrow, perhaps for the first time in his short NFL career, is pointing down.

It’s on him in the final five games to flip it and make paying him a no-brainer decision for everybody.

Yes, $60 million a year is an eye-watering number. Blame inflation. It seems like just yesterday that Jimmy Garoppolo signed a market-setting deal that paid him $27 million per season. Now we’re doubling it?

Maybe Garoppolo isn’t the best example, but it’s easy to see why this kind of number sits wrong with so many people.

However, the NFL’s salary cap — which rose 13 percent from 2023 to 2024 — has added nearly $100 million since the 49ers signed Garoppolo in 2018.

And it’s not as if the importance of competent quarterbacking has diminished since then. These days, high-school quarterbacks spark eight-figure contract bidding wars.

I understand the concerns about paying a quarterback top-of-the-line money for not top-of-the-line production, but not everyone gets a Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen.

This is a league where Dak Prescott makes $60 million per season, Tua Tagovailoa makes $53 million, Trevor Lawrence makes $55 million, and Kirk Cousins makes $45 million.

The market is set. It’s not hard to figure out where Purdy fits.

The 24-year-old quarterback might be having a down year, but he’s still a hell of a player. His scrambling ability is a critical reason why the Niners have not yet been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. The coaches’ All-22 film is far more forgiving of his play than the zoomed-in broadcast view.

Either way, what’s the alternative to paying Purdy for the 49ers?

Draft another quarterback? For every Purdy, there’s a Lance. There’s a C.J. Beathard, too.

Sign 2023’s backup quarterback Sam Darnold to a short-term mid-tier deal (somewhere in the $35 million-per-year range)? In the best-case scenario, you’ll have to pay him like Purdy — more than Purdy, in fact — in a year or two. Worst-case scenario, everyone (who can be fired) is fired for letting Purdy walk out the door and not having a viable replacement.

Personally, I would have no problem with delaying Purdy’s signing for as long as possible. Make him play out the fourth and final year of his rookie contract at $1.19 million, and then go full Cousins and franchise tag him once or twice.

But that’s an easy tactic to take in Madden or a column. It’s a bit more challenging to pull with a quarterback you have to see every day. Nothing says “We trust you to lead this team,” like having a guy on a temp-worker contract. The word “toxic” comes to mind.

The Niners believe in rewarding their best players with market-setting contracts. They should.

But they should have learned a lesson from this past summer that it’s in no one’s best interest to delay that gratification.

I imagine they’ll sign Purdy to his new deal shortly after the season. No fuss, no muss.

The young quarterback must find a way in the final five weeks to ensure that such an agreement on his value extends beyond the team facility.

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