Tag: brock purdy stats

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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