The No. 1 headline item of this offseason for the San Francisco 49ers, at least until it's done, is a contract extension for quarterback Brock Purdy. Where things exactly are right now is unclear, but Jordan Schultz of Fox Sports recently reported there's "no rush." History also tells us the 49ers don't get these kind of contracts done quickly (Nick Bosa, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk).
A big part of the conversation about Purdy's looming new deal is the average annual value. The bullseye seems to be between $50 million and $60 million per year. It's fair to say Purdy has no reason to take any sort of discount, though Schultz cited an anonymous general manager acknowledged the possibility of a bit of "hometown discount."
"Perhaps a little," the general manager added when asked if there could be a hometown discount. "But Purdy's getting paid, that's a fact. The benefit the 49ers have is that he's been playing on a very team-friendly deal, so maybe he takes a little less to lock in long-term security."
Purdy has been playing on the most team-friendly of team-friendly deals. He was "Mr. Irrelevant" in the 2022 NFL Draft (perhaps you've heard), and his base salary hasn't topped $1 million until this year.
49ers' remarkable good fortune with Brock Purdy has been called out
Purdy, of course, entered his rookie training camp as the third or fourth quarterback for San Francisco. He earned a spot on the 53-man roster, and when Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo went down with injuries he became the starter. During a recent appearance on the Built 4 More Podcast, Purdy acknowledged he knew he might have a chance to play as a rookie when Garoppolo took over.
"Once Jimmy became the starter (in 2022), I was like 'I might get some playing time this year. I just don’t know when,'" Purdy said.
Tom Blair of NFL.com recently listed the best quarterback additions of the last five years. The 49ers' drafting Purdy easily landed as the "Best Day 3 Pick."
"The 49ers got ludicrously lucky. At least, that's the way it looks when one considers that Purdy, the last overall pick in 2022, is also the only QB from that class to still be with his drafting team."
"Then again, you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket in the first place....They could have counted up to three on the QB depth chart and decided not to spend even the minimal possible amount of extra capital on the position, even if they’d been intending to trade Garoppolo, who had undergone shoulder surgery that March, during the offseason. But if not for that low-stakes (though apparently also high-stakes) decision, San Francisco would not have been able to slide Purdy into place after Lance and Garoppolo went down with injuries --- and they would not now be preparing to extend the QB who has put up the second-best passer rating in the NFL (104.9) since 2022."
Blair got right to calling out the 49ers' good fortune to have landed on Purdy as their starting quarterback, while adding how it's an exact path other teams are unlikely to repeat. He also noted it as an example of taking a swing at the position, even when you seem to have multiple options in place already.
Of course the time when Purdy is the lowest-paid starting quarterback in the NFL is coming to an end, and the 49ers can no longer do whatever they want to add to the rest of the roster. But it was nice while it lasted.
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