The San Francisco 49ers have a major decision to make.
After shipping wide receiver Deebo Samuel to the Washington Commanders in a blockbuster trade, and watching top talent walk out the door via free agency, the 49ers are facing a dilemma of whether to make Brock Purdy one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.
For the first time, Purdy–originally chosen in the seventh round, as Mr. Irrelevant in the 2022 NFL Draft, is up for a long-term extension.
Could the San Francisco 49ers Take Unconventional Approach to Brock Purdy’s Contract?
As a quarterback, Purdy is a bit of an enigma.
In his second NFL season, Purdy guided the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance, played a key role in San Francisco’s NFC Championship Game appearance as a rookie, and yet he is viewed by many as a product of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s system and the abundance of playmakers in his supporting cast.
Through his first three seasons, Purdy is a 67.5 percent passer for 9,518 yards with 64 touchdowns to 27 interceptions. Yet, at age 25, extending Purdy to a colossal contract could be a risk, given the talent drain from San Francisco this offseason.
National NFL reporter Mike Tanier believes the 49ers could go against the grain in how they eventually structure Purdy’s contract.
“A theory,” Tanier wrote in his Monday Walkthrough column. “The 49ers may try to sign Brock Purdy to a front-loaded contract, as opposed to the back-loaded ones most teams prefer. If they clear enough cap space, the 49ers can guarantee Purdy high 2025-26 salaries and a more modest bonus, rather than a huge bonus and low salaries, making his cap charges higher in the short term but more manageable down the road. If Purdy fully proves himself as an A-tier quarterback, his cap hits in 2027 and 2028 (when the 49ers will be past their current crossroads) would then be manageable. If he proves he was system-dependent, the 49ers won’t incur massive cap hits to release him in a few years.
“The 49ers took a similar approach when they signed Jimmy Garoppolo. It’s a smart move when the roster needs retooling and the quarterback is probably, but not certainly, the guy a team wants to retool around.”
Whether Purdy is truly a franchise quarterback who elevates the players around him still remains an open question, even as the 49ers are about to make a major commitment.
By frontloading Purdy’s contract, San Francisco can build in some optionality to get out of a deal if he doesn’t live up to the expectations and value of the deal, so that the 49ers would have an escape hatch without absorbing a major cap hit to move on.
How general manager John Lynch structures Purdy’s contract will say a lot about how the 49ers feel about their quarterback and his [high priced] future.
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