In almost every case, when a team loses its starting quarterback for half the year, the outcome would be something close to a .500 record, at best. And when said team loses more than half its blue-chip players to significant injuries, the record might produce no more than five or six wins.
For quarterback Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers, however, 2025's injury-riddled campaign somehow produced a 12-5 finish with a playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round.
Even Purdy, who missed eight starts with a turf-toe injury, remarked just how unbelievable it was for the Niners to get as far as they did in spite of the adversity. And while he shares the same kind of disappointment about not being able to play in Super Bowl 60 in the Bay Area at Levi's Stadium, that won't change the bigger takeaway about what was accomplished throughout the year.
And Purdy is beginning to recognize just that.
Brock Purdy describes 49ers' 2025 season as 'special'
Purdy partook in a special pre-Super Bowl event on Wednesday: the Toyota Glow Up Classic, a glow-in-the-dark flag-football game for several female high school players from the Bay Area.
Along with several other players, Purdy seved as a coach during the game and later acknowledged he was looking forward to his own daughter potentially participating in such a game when she gets older.
During the post-event presser, the quarterback expanded on his sentiments about San Francisco's recent campaign.
"Obviously, you want to finish and get to the big game and go all the way," Purdy told reporters. "And that's the big goal. I still haven't exactly been able to step away and see the whole picture of how things went, so I'm excited to do that this offseason. But, with the injuries we dealt with, the situations and everything, it was tough. But, I'm proud of the guys stepping up -- young guys, old guys who came in -- having new guys come in, like [linebacker] Eric Kendricks late in the year.
"For us being able to win the way we did, as a team, it was pretty special."
Of course, things ended in a bittersweet manner when Purdy and the 49ers were upended by quarterback Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks.
But that shouldn't change Purdy's outlook going forward, as he subsequently acknowledged shortly after the Niners' elimination in the divisional round how a return to the Super Bowl is definitely on the horizon.
It won't be this year, but hopefully soon.
Interview information provided to Niner Noise by Toyota, courtesy of Gray Wolf Agency.