All offseason long, former San Francisco 49ers safety Donte Whitner has been making headlines and stirring things up on social media. Whether it’s calling out Ji’Ayir Brown or having red-hot takes on the team, his latest target is quarterback Brock Purdy.
On Whitner’s Grit Code podcast, he criticized parts of Purdy’s game and seemed to diminish his success by saying:
“Most of his success has been coming off play-action, gimmick plays, things that they practice all week long. I need you to be able to bring us back from three touchdowns down like Patrick Mahomes can.”
It’s fair to be critical of Purdy, but this take shows that Whitner is probably just going after Purdy more as rage-bait than anything else. It’s his right to do that and certainly means more content and things to debate for the rest of us, but Purdy has proven he can bring his team back before.
The NFC Championship game in early 2024 against the Detroit Lions is obvious evidence of that. Maybe Whitner missed that game, but Purdy brought the Niners back when they were down multiple touchdowns and led the team to a Super Bowl.
Purdy was scrambling like crazy in that game and made plays all on his own, which should have killed the false narrative that he is only a product of the system he plays in. He has always been able to create and make plays out of the pocket, but his detractors conveniently forget that.
Now, that doesn’t mean Purdy is infallible. Can he make careless turnovers at times? Absolutely. Does his willingness to extend a play get him in trouble sometimes? Without question. But to say that most of his success has come on scripted plays simply isn’t true. Did he watch this play against the Chicago Bears last season?
They almost certainly didn’t practice that one.
But this notion that Purdy needs to be a guy who can bring you back from down 21 points is just fanciful. There are only a handful of quarterbacks in the history of the NFL who you’d give decent odds to mount that sort of comeback.
Those kinds of quarterbacks don't just grow on trees, so Whitner is clearly just trying to get people upset by taking a swipe at Purdy.
Whitner does have interesting thoughts on the Niners at times, but it also seems clear he is trying to build his clout and is leaning into negativity to do so. That’s his right, but it doesn’t make what he says true, so fans have been right to criticize him for his Purdy take.
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