Two years removed from being on the precipice of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, the buzz has largely dissipated around San Francisco 49ers signal-caller Brock Purdy.
Once the “Mr. Irrelevant” in the 2022 Draft, Purdy’s Pro Bowl campaign, paired with success for much of his stint as a starter, helped land the 25-year-old a five-year/$265M extension this offseason.
Even after securing a new, lucrative deal, concerns persist over Purdy’s ceiling as a pro and whether he’s merely a product of Kyle Shanahan’s innovative attack.
The 49ers are fortunate to be healthy up front and in the backfield, but question marks at receiver will test Purdy’s ability to elevate the rest of the offense early in the upcoming campaign.
One popular media analyst is so bullish on San Francisco’s quarterback’s ability to string together an elite 2025 that he has compared him to arguably the best player in NFL history.
While guest-hosting “The Herd,” Jason McIntyre unironically suggested Purdy could be on his path to being the next Tom Brady.
“The narrative was that he wasn’t good last year—he wasn’t that bad,” McIntyre said. “In his ‘down year,’ the numbers, the facts, suggest he was better than Justin Herbert, Matthew Stafford, and C.J. Stroud. The guys bagging on him sound like those bagging on Tom Brady early in his career. You kept saying Brady was a game manager until you couldn’t anymore. Get on board with Purdy—you don’t want to be left behind.”
Suggesting raw box score numbers indicate success in a sport where context, paired with advanced analytics and crunching tape, is so paramount, is comical, even for the hot-take artist McIntyre.
Purdy is often overhated and has proven to be an above-average arm, but he’s far from the GOAT trajectory McIntyre suggested.
Let’s see Purdy win a few rings and collect some MVPs before mentioning him in the same sentence as Tom Brady.
