San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan tied his future with the 49ers to quarterback Brock Purdy when the club signed Purdy to a massive five-year extension this offseason and erased all doubt about his status as their franchise QB.
Shanahan on Tuesday in a press conference talked about his expectations for Purdy in 2025 and made it clear he doesn’t believe the 25-year-old has played his best football yet. Purdy’s continued ascension will ultimately determine whether the 49ers have a new Super Bowl window, or if there will be an overhaul of the coaching staff and front office in the not-so-distant future.
“I think Brock’s played at a very high level since he’s been here, since his first game in to his last game,” Shanahan said. “I think Brock’s played at an extremely high level and that’s why he’s earned that contract. I think the hardest thing with this League and the amount of money and the amount of coverage when people get contracts, there’s all this other expectation of now what do they have to do? Brock needs to keep playing how he’s always played and continue to get better like everyone does. You get better or worse, you don’t stay the same.
“So like, Brock has had a hell of a short career so far, he had a hell of an offseason. When you have a guy who is to me real in those ways, it hasn’t been fake, the way he works, who he is as a man, what he’s put on film, what we see every day, he will keep getting better and that’s what we saw throughout OTAs.”
It’s pretty simple from the 49ers’ perspective.
Purdy isn’t always going to be surrounded by a slew of All-Pros and Pro Bowlers. At some point he’ll need to elevate his game and help carry the club that paid him $100 million guaranteed. That elevation is what the 49ers and Shanahan are banking on.
Last season didn’t instill a ton of confidence as Purdy put together his worst stretch of football at a time when the team was dealing with injuries to some of its top playmakers like Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk. It doesn’t sound like Shanahan is worried about additional regression this year. It’s a catastrophe if there is.
If Purdy does continue getting better like Shanahan believes he will, it puts the 49ers in a great spot to quickly continue competing for championships with Shanahan at the helm.
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