Tag: brock purdy stats

1 offensive trend 49ers must carry over from Week 6

The 49ers got back to what works on offense against Seattle, a trend that should help them entering a brutal part of their schedule.

There’s a clear trend the San Francisco 49ers needed to continue following this season, and they did it in the team’s Week 6 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

Quarterback Brock Purdy is excellent in play action, but his play action rate dipped from 2022 to 2023, and then from 2023 to 2024. Entering Thursday’s game he was running play action just 17.6 percent of the time per Pro Football Focus.

Thursday the 49ers utilized play action on season-high 29 percent of Purdy’s dropbacks. It probably isn’t a coincidence that the uptick in play action usage came in the same game San Francisco posted a season-high 36 points and 483 total yards.

Purdy wasn’t as successful as usual out of play action Thursday, but his season numbers in that concept still outshine his numbers in non-play action.

In play action Purdy is completing 72.2 percent of his throws this season, averages 12.6 yards per attempt and has two touchdowns with no interceptions.

Without play action, Purdy is at 63.8 percent completions, 7.9 yards per attempt, seven touchdowns and four interceptions.

By getting their play-action game going against Seattle, they also got their rushing attack going with a season-high 228 rushing yards on 33 carries.

It’s clear the maximized version of the 49ers’ offense involves a heavy dose of play action that gets linebackers moving and playing slower than they might normally play. It worked Thursday night against the Seahawks, and it’s something they need to continue doing heading into a Week 7 showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs.

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49ers rising star QB off to best statistical start to career in team history

Brock Purdy’s numbers through his first 25 starts are going to be absurd.

It’s tough to get off to a better start than San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has in his career.

In fact, it’s so hard that no other QB in the 49ers’ storied history of quarterbacks has been as good as Purdy has. He has a chance to set a slew of benchmarks for San Francisco signal callers in his 25th start Sunday against the New England Patriots.

Purdy didn’t even need a 25th start to set new high watermarks in several statistical categories. He’s at a 69.7 percent completion rate, 46 touchdowns and a 113.6 passer rating through 24 games. Those numbers are all highs through 25 games and Purdy hasn’t even started his 25th game yet.

If he throws for at least 278 yards Sunday he’ll have the most passing yards by a 49ers QB through his first 25 starts as well. That’s made even more impressive by the fact he needs 15 completions to reach the No. 3 spot in completions over that stretch. First in yards, third in completions would be a nice summary of the efficiency that has helped define Purdy in the early portion of his career.

This start for Purdy is why the 49ers are ultimately going to give him a massive long-term extension this offseason. How he grows through his next 25 starts will determine just how far San Francisco can go with him under center. If his numbers look like they did in his first 25 starts, they should be good for a long time.

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1 area Brock Purdy must improve in 2024

Brock Purdy was really good last year, but he has one key area he needs to improve moving forward:

49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was excellent in the 2023 season. In his first full season as a starter Purdy broke the 49ers single-season passing yards record, finished fourth in MVP voting, and led the NFL in touchdown rate, yards per attempt, passer rating and QBR. Despite the gaudy numbers though there’s one glaring area Purdy has to improve in.

The bread and butter for San Francisco’s passing offense is the middle of the field. For Purdy in particular it’s the intermediate area (10-19 yards beyond the line of scrimmage) in the middle of the field. While he was dynamite on those throws in his rookie season, he struggled there last year as the league started to catch on to what the 49ers offense was going to look like with Purdy in it.

Purdy on intermediate throws overall completed 65.7 percent of his 143 throws for 1,798 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Splitting the field into horizontal thirds though it becomes clear where the problem area is for the 49ers QB.

On throws to the middle of the field at the 10-19 yard depth, Purdy threw all six of his intermediate interceptions and had a whopping 10 turnover worthy plays according to Pro Football Focus. He had seven turnover worthy plays in all other areas of the field combined. That cannot continue to be the case if Purdy is going to continue ascending as a quarterback.

The good news is there are ways to fix this problem. A culprit for the high amount of TWPs in the intermediate middle could just be the lack of offseason work for Purdy. Because he was rehabbing his elbow, Purdy didn’t get to have a regular offseason where he got to be in practices repping things he saw on film. Training camp began by the time he was able to play so the time to improve was over and preparations for the season were underway.

This offseason will give him an opportunity to see what defenses were doing to him on those plays and start deciphering ways to counter it.

The bad news is there’s always going to be some level of risk in the way Purdy plays because he’s not afraid to let it rip if he sees (or thinks he sees) a window. His lack of elite physical tools are going to get him into some  trouble on tight-window throws. Limiting such plays will be crucial though. Sometimes a defender is going to make a play, but Purdy has to start cutting down on the interceptions or near interceptions where a defender is able to make an easy read in the middle of the field to step in and get hands on the football.

Once those throws are cut down, we’ll really see Purdy start elevating the 49ers offense as an out-of-structure playmaker. We’ve seen glimpses of it, but now the next evolution for him in 2024 will be holding the ball when defenders are waiting in the middle of the field and making a play on his own when that throw isn’t available. When he does that more consistently it’s going to be almost impossible to slow a 49ers offense that is already one of the NFL’s best.

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Brock Purdy closing in on 2 49ers franchise passing records

Brock Purdy could break 2 49ers franchise passing records without even needing the 17th game.

49ers quarterback Brock Purdy is knocking on the door of a pair of franchise passing records that he may not even need the 17th game to break.

On Sunday in Arizona Purdy tossed four touchdowns and threw for 242 yards. For the season he’s now up to 3,795 passing yards and 29 passing TDs after 14 games.

That puts him only 483 yards behind Jeff Garcia’s single-season franchise record of 4,278 passing yards. Purdy is also only seven TD throws behind Steve Young’s franchise record 36 from the 1998 season.

With games coming up against the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Commanders, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that Purdy breaks both of those records without needing the 17th game.

If he and his teammates are healthy through the final three weeks, and Purdy doesn’t completely collapse from a production standpoint, it appears Purdy is all but a lock to break both of these records at some point this season though.

Even without the records though he’s having a really nice year and one of the best ever by a 49ers QB from a statistical standpoint. His 3,795 yards are the ninth-most in team history, and with 205 yards against Baltimore in Week 16 he’d be only the third QB in franchise history to hit the 4,000-yard mark. Steve Young did it twice, and Garcia did it when he set the single-season record.

Then there’s the TD passes, of which his 29 are the most since Garcia had 32 in 2001, and they’re tied for seventh-most in franchise history.

Any way this winds up getting sliced, Purdy is putting together an historic year that will go down in the annals of 49ers history regardless of where he finishes in the MVP race.

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Brock Purdy on track to set 49ers single-season passing yards record

Brock Purdy won’t even need 17 games to break the 49ers’ single-season passing record if he keeps up this pace:

Brock Purdy’s big year is on pace to rival 1994 Steve Young for the best quarterback season in 49ers history. There’s a ton of peripheral context for defining success in a season for a QB though, so we’ll hold off on the big, sweeping statements for now. What we can definitively say is that Purdy is on track to shatter the team’s single-season record for passing yards.

Perhaps the most remarkable part though is that Purdy won’t even need the benefit of a 17th game to break that record. After his 368-yard outburst Sunday against the Seahawks, Purdy is now sitting at 3,553 passing yards for the year. That alone is the 13th-highest mark in 49ers history.

Purdy is also averaging 273.3 passing yards per game this season. That number would put him at 4,373 passing yards across 16 games, clearing the franchise record of 4,278 set by Jeff Garcia in the 2000 season.

If he keeps that pace over 17 games he’d obliterate Garcia’s record with 4,646 yards.

Ultimately success for 49ers quarterbacks is determined by whether they win a Super Bowl, but it’s hard to see the numbers Purdy is stacking up and not say he’s going toward one of the best seasons ever posted by a 49ers QB.

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Brock Purdy’s first 17 starts would be one of best QB seasons in 49ers history

How Brock Purdy’s numbers across his first 17 regular season starts stack up against other great 49ers QB seasons:

Brock Purdy’s outing against the Eagles on Sunday in Week 13 marked his 17th regular season start as a pro. His ability to pick up in 2023 where he left off in 2022 has been a key reason San Francisco got out to a fast start and now sits one game off the pace for the No. 1 seed with five weeks to go.

Purdy hasn’t just produced at a level good enough to help the 49ers win games though. He’s helped them dominate, and his numbers show it. In fact, his numbers would mark perhaps the best statistical season by a QB in 49ers team history.

Through 17 games Purdy is 14-3 as a starter. Here are his numbers:

69.7 percent completion rate
4,283 passing yards
34 touchdown passes
8 interceptions
9.4 yards per attempt
116.9 passer rating

Let’s see where each of those numbers stacks up against other great QB seasons in 49ers history:

How Brock Purdy adds new explosive element to 49ers passing game

The key way Brock Purdy has changed the #49ers’ offense:

Last season, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy elevated the 49ers offense by putting up ludicrous numbers on intermediate throws. In his second season he’s adding a new explosive element to San Francisco’s passing attack by stretching the field vertically with a ton of success.

Purdy has thrown 38 deep passes (20-plus yards beyond the line of scrimmage) this season. He’s completed 24 of them for an NFL-high 63.2 percent completion rate. Purdy has eight touchdowns and just one interception on those throws, while earning the NFL’s highest deep-throw grade from analytics site Pro Football Focus.

While his 38 total attempts rank 17th out of 27 qualified QBs, his 12.5 percent attempt rate ties him with Broncos QB Russell Wilson and Bills QB Josh Allen. He’s also throwing deep at a higher rate than Chargers QB Justin Herbert and Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence.

This is an entirely new weapon for the 49ers’ passing game. With Jimmy Garoppolo under center the deep throw wasn’t done often enough or with enough success to make defenses respect it.

His best year was in 2019 when he completed 57.1 percent of his deep throws with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. During that entire season though he threw just 35 passes 20-plus yards beyond the line of scrimmage and completed 20 of them. Purdy in 11 games this season already has 24 completions on 38 attempts. Garoppolo’s deep throw rate of 6.6 percent was nearly half of Purdy’s this year.

From 2020-2022 Garoppolo in 32 games completed only 23 of his 77 deep tosses with five touchdowns and six interceptions.

That inability to scare defenses in the deep third of the field muddied the middle of the field and forced the offense to rely on shorter throws in heavier traffic where yards after the catch were a requirement for explosive plays.

Those short and intermediate throws are still crucial and YAC will always be prevalent in an offense that features Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey and George Kittle, but they’re no longer a necessity for explosive passing plays for San Francisco.

Purdy has proven to be an efficient and effective deep ball thrower, forcing defenses to stretch themselves vertically while also trying to stop the horizontal aspects of San Francisco’s offense. That new two-pronged attack is a key reason the 49ers’ offense has taken off with Purdy under center.

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Brock Purdy was basically perfect in 49ers win over Bucs

It’s hard to be better than Brock Purdy was for the #49ers on Sunday:

Brock Purdy’s first career start was agains the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 14 of the 2022 season. It went well for the then-rookie. His second game against the Bucs in Week 11 of this season went even better.

Purdy was stellar, completing 21-of-25 throws for 333 yards and three touchdowns. The 333 yards were his second-most ever, and his most in a win.

His stats worked out to a perfect 158.3 passer rating, which is the highest possible mark in that metric. Only 21 other players in NFL history have done that on 25-plus pass attempts.

Bills QB Josh Allen did it in Week 4 this year. Before that it was Tom Brady in the 2020 season. No 49ers QB has ever hit the 158.3 mark on that many attempts.

Joe Montana and Steve Young both accomplished the feat in the 1989 campaign, but they did so on far fewer attempts. Young went 11-of-12 for 188 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-20 Week 7 win against New England. Three weeks later in Week 10 it was Montana who hit a 158.3 passer rating by going 16-of-19 for 270 yards and three touchdowns against the Falcons in a 45-3 win.

Purdy will likely never be one of the two best QBs in 49ers history, but his outing Sunday against Tampa Bay is in the discussion as one of the finest single-game performances by any QB in team history.

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