Some may argue the 49ers overpaid to keep Brock Purdy, but the relative cost actually makes his contract extension a major bargain.
It doesn't matter whether or not you feel the San Francisco 49ers overpaid quarterback Brock Purdy on the new five-year, $265 million extension.
The Niners' sentiments about this are what matter, and they obviously feel as if he's "their guy" for the long haul, for better or worse.
It is a lot of cash, especially considering over $165 million of it will be paid out during the first three years of the contract, suggesting San Francisco didn't backload the extension as it has often done with many of its other stars.
However, there's also plenty of evidence suggesting the 49ers struck a bargain.
Not only did the Niners avoid resetting the market with Purdy, they actually made it a mid-range extension by apparently modeling it after the extension done between the Detroit Lions and quarterback Jared Goff, both of whom have annual averages of $53 million, tied for seventh most in the league.
Not horrible. Yet there's another piece of data that shows why Purdy's deal is affordable.
Brock Purdy's extension with 49ers doesn't take up a lot of cap space
Well, comparatively speaking.
The $53 million annual average accounts for 19 percent of the salary cap, currently at $279.2 million. And, that percentage should continue to decrease, on average, each year the cap continues to rise.
In comparison to other quarterbacks who signed massive second-contract deals since 2020, Purdy doesn't even come close to cutting into those QBs' teams' respective cap space, which is what ESPN's Bill Barnwell wanted to remind critics of:
Brock Purdy's average salary on his new deal ($53 million) amounts to 19% of the current salary cap ($279.2 million). Here's a list of guys since 2020 who have signed multi-year extensions as their second contracts, the percentage of the cap their deals represented at the time,…
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) May 19, 2025
In short, here's the year-one (for each quarterback) data Barnwell shared:
- Joe Burrow 24.5% $68.4 million
- Josh Allen 23.6% $65.9 million
- Justin Herbert 23.4% $65.3 million
- Kyler Murray 22.7% $63.4 million
- Jalen Hurts 22.7% $63.4 million
- Patrick Mahomes 22.7% $63.4 million
- Trevor Lawrence 21.5% $60.0 million
- Tua Tagovailoa 20.8% $58.1 million
- Deshaun Watson 20.2% $56.4 million
Barnwell also pointed out the only quarterback signed to a second contract since 2020 whose subsequent cap percentage was less than Purdy's was Daniel Jones with the New York Giants back in 2020 at 17.8 percent.
Putting it bluntly, Purdy isn't eating into San Francisco's immediate cap space like other recently extended quarterbacks have.
And it's just one more reason why the 49ers' extension with him is already looking like a bargain.