So, Brock Purdy, what’s it like on the first day of the rest of your soon-to-be very well-compensated life? What happens now that the season is over and the 49ers can start negotiating with you on a long-term contract that would ripple through generations of your family and define this financial era for the franchise?
“I’m not really sure,” Purdy said with a small smile and maybe an involuntary little gulp during the 49ers’ locker room cleanout time Monday at Levi’s Stadium. “After this … I’ll go over and talk to some of the coaches and everybody and see where we’re at.”
Then he paused. Because Purdy, who turned 25 last month, really was diligently trying to work through the beginning steps of a deal that, if agreed to, should be worth somewhere in the range of $50 million a year and total something close to $200 million.
But also, if the negotiations don’t go well, Purdy and the 49ers theoretically could duplicate last year’s exhausting Brandon Aiyuk situation — a long stalemate and Purdy possibly staying away from OTAs and minicamp, and then there would be additional havoc into training camp. The 49ers’ 2024 mojo was thrown way off by the Aiyuk experience. If the 49ers somehow get into a similar situation with their starting quarterback, well, that’d be season-crushing.
Purdy knows that. You can bet that Jed York, Paraag Marathe, John Lynch, and Kyle Shanahan know that the absolute worst way to follow up this horrendous 6-11 season would be to start a money fight with somebody who exponentially out-performed his NFL minimum contract in his first three seasons.
Neither side wants ugliness with this. Neither side wants to upset the other. If possible, a quick deal — maybe by early next month — would be just about perfect. No holdout conversation. No weird videos. No passive-aggressive tussling about possible trades and holding Purdy to the final cheap year on his rookie contract.
But obviously, Purdy and his agent have to sit down with the 49ers and see how it goes. And it sure will be different than 99% of major negotiations, just because of who Purdy is: the last pick of the 2022 draft, never somebody to draw attention to himself, a surprise winning QB1 right off the bat, and perpetually a focus of debate about his true value.
He has won four playoff games and made a Pro Bowl. He also had a mediocre 2024 season. And now the negotiations on the most important contract of his career begin.
“It’s my first time going through this all,” Purdy said. “I don’t really know what the next step is. But we’ll see. Obviously, I’d like to get it done sooner rather than later, just so I can come back to work and get going with all the guys here.
“I’m not really sure what it’s all going to look like or entail. But I know that I’m the guy for this organization, and I can do what it takes to help lead us to where we want to go.”
That last point is most salient, especially if you’re looking for reasons why logic should prevail in this negotiation. Purdy wouldn’t blurt out that he’s the 49ers’ guy unless he knew it in his soul and unless he’d been told that by Shanahan and Lynch — not just during the Super Bowl run a year ago but possibly as recently as a few minutes before he addressed the media Monday. And Shanahan and Lynch wouldn’t commit to telling him that unless they were fully committed to Purdy as their long-term QB1 and unless they knew that York and Marathe were fully committed to paying Purdy the market rate.
‘Man, I thought Brock was great’
Shanahan and Lynch will hold their season-ending news conference this week. But as Purdy’s teammates packed up their lockers Monday, they universally praised him as their QB and, more to the point through this painful season, as one of their true leaders.
“Man, I thought Brock was great,” Christian McCaffrey said. “I think he’s done such a good job of managing the team. You know, he’s the leader, he’s the quarterback, and it doesn’t always go well. I think obviously he’s the last pick in the draft, and he probably came in with a chip on his shoulder, but since he’s been playing, it’s been a lot of good. … And I think he’s done a really good job for his first time going through losses like this, of maintaining composure, maintaining work ethic, and continuing just to be himself. That’s a good sign for a young player. Because it’s not always like that.”
What will the 49ers offer? It’s an expensive proposition. The deal won’t be cheap. Maybe $46 million a year with $110 million fully guaranteed as a baseline (something in the top 12 of QB1 contracts). At the higher end: $53 million with $140 million fully guaranteed, which would be top five or six. Splitting the middle would be something like a four-year deal worth about $50 million a year, with $125 million in total guarantees — essentially two and a half years of guaranteed money. That’s less than some top QBs have received and would give the 49ers a potential “out” after two or three years. But it would also ensure that Purdy is paid market price through multiple years — and timed up to get another big deal while still in his 20s.
Will Purdy and his agent try to get every dollar possible? It sure would be their right. And on Monday, Purdy didn’t sound like he was ready to give a major discount. (Also: He shouldn’t!) But Purdy kept saying that his No. 1 priority is to help the 49ers win, and he said he knows they could use every available dollar to sign the best roster possible. Every dollar he doesn’t take is a dollar that could help another position.
“For me, at the end of the day, I want to win. I want to win for this organization and everybody here,” Purdy said. “I’m not the kind of guy that wants to have any kind of drama with anything. I’m here for this organization, for my teammates in the locker room. And I want to be very professional about it.”
Purdy doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who will try to squeeze every dollar from the 49ers — he demurred when I asked if he, like almost all other QB1s when they negotiate new deals, wanted to reset the QB market above Dak Prescott’s $60 million deal.
Meanwhile, the 49ers do have a habit of trying to squeeze their players, even their best players, from George Kittle and Fred Warner in recent years, to Nick Bosa’s long holdout in 2023, to Aiyuk and Trent Williams this season. But the 49ers have done recent QB1 deals relatively swiftly. Case in point: Jimmy Garoppolo’s record-breaking five-year, $137.5-million deal that was signed in early February 2020.
A sensible Purdy deal should follow suit. It shouldn’t get nasty. It shouldn’t be delayed. He shouldn’t take less than what’s fair, and he shouldn’t force the 49ers to reset the market. If this thing goes past April, all hell could break loose. But all signs are that there will be peace on the 49ers’ high-level negotiating front for at least one off-season.