LAS VEGAS — If you’re among the crowd that believes San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy to be nothing but a game manager in a pejorative sense who needs everything around him to be perfect to make it work, don’t hang around Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo too long. Because Spags will bend your ear without provocation on the subject of Purdy, who he will of course face this Sunday in Super Bowl LVIII.
“Part of it is that he’s so poised,” Spagnuolo said on Monday’s Opening Night, when I asked him why Purdy has been so very good against the blitz this season. “I don’t think people give him enough credit for the talent he has. And then, he’s got all those weapons around him. I’ve been thoroughly impressed with what I’ve watched on tape over the last eight days. I’ve watched about every game now, and I don’t see the guy making very many mistakes.”
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I then asked Spagnuolo how important it is to hide one’s blitz intentions, and he took that as another opportunity to talk Purdy up.
“Yeah, you want to do that to a quarterback all the time. You don’t really want them to know you’re coming. You are trying to find ways to get free rushers. It doesn’t happen to him very often, and when it does, he’s got a really good knack for getting the ball out quickly. He gets the ball out before the receiver makes his break, and the timing they have is tremendous.”
Soon after that, the conversation turned to the mobility Purdy has shown in the playoffs with some important run plays –yes, he is “sneaky athletic.” And Spags was all over that concept.
“Anytime you’re playing a quarterback who’s as talented as he is, and can run the football, you have to make a lot of decisions. How many guys you commit to rushing the passer, and how many guys you commit to scrambling. We have a little bit of everything [to deal with], and we have to get him in those situations. First and second down, they do such a good job of running the ball, you have to get them into those passing situations.”
Asked a few minutes later about the 49ers’ offense in total… well, guess where Spags went in a big hurry?
“All the weapons they have, I mean, it’s multiple, right? We don’t have a lot of crossover from the AFC to the NFC, so I didn’t see them a lot. But I am thoroughly impressed with this quarterback. I don’t care where he came from, or what got him to this point. He’s the real deal. Not only throwing the ball, but you saw in these playoff games what he can do running the ball. And he’s as poised as I’ve seen at this early stage of his career.”
It’s been a highly interesting week of watching 49ers tape for Spagnuolo, and it’s quite clear that Purdy has been the focus. Even a specific question about running back Christian McCaffrey eventually got the ball rolling back to No. 13.
“The thing that impressed me is that I was expecting to turn on the film and see someone who looked like a backup quarterback, and had a weakness somewhere. But the timing of his throws, and the anticipation of his throws, are really impressive. And the fact that he can scramble like a really good athlete – I was really impressed with that. I didn’t know that about him. He seems like a really experienced quarterback who’s been doing it for a long time. I often try to watch the broadcast views and not just the coach’s tape. You know how those cameras can get really close [on the quarterback’s face] and he never gets rattled. He always looks poised, and it’s really impressive.”
Not that Spags in unaware of Kyle Shanahan’s other weapons, and how they’ll be deployed. But this is a clear indicator that whatever negative impressions people outside the league may have of Purdy at this point in his career… well, those views are not shared by the guys who have to devise schemes to go against him.
