Want the latest Bay Area sports news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive regular email blasts, plus “The Dime,” our twice-weekly sports newsletter.
This was a very complicated and enormous negotiation that, in a very practical Brock Purdy way, actually came down to a pretty simple number. A magic number, you might say.
“For sure, yeah, it was 53,” Purdy said on my podcast after Wednesday’s 49ers OTA.
Once the 49ers’ long-term extension offer hit an average annual value of $53 million last month, the eventual five-year, $265-million deal was inevitable. The 49ers and Purdy’s agent still had to figure out the details of the cash flow and specific option triggers, but the big-picture piece of it had been settled.
If you know Purdy’s predisposition on this stuff and the way the 49ers think about him, this was exactly what both sides would’ve always predicted. Still, you never know on big negotiations. Things can get delayed. Things can turn sour even when they’re not supposed to. Huge money discussions can lead to huge headaches, about as often as not.
But not this time. Not in the Purdy era, which, let’s stipulate, unofficially began this offseason and maybe officially was christened the moment he signed that deal. If the 49ers truly start to take on his personality, there will be more common sense, fewer surprises, and a baseline of balance and two-way respect.
Which made the $53-million mark so obvious and so fair — it’s just below the top five QB AAVs and right alongside Jared Goff, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, and Lamar Jackson in the bottom half of the top 10. You can argue that Purdy shouldn’t be that high, but the newest deal almost always is the richest (and this one is far from it) and Purdy took some lesser guarantees and allowed the 49ers to keep this season’s $5.2 million salary intact, before the extension kicks in. You can also argue that Purdy made too many concessions for a 25-year-old proven QB who probably hasn’t yet reached his prime, but, well, isn’t that the point of balancing this thing out?
“That’s just the quarterback market,” Purdy said.
This is sensible for both sides. Purdy deserved top-10 money and wasn’t taking less. He also didn’t deserve top-three money and wasn’t asking for it. The 49ers didn’t try to take advantage of his approach and offered the right number. The Purdy era is sensible.
“Obviously, I love this organization,” Purdy said. “We wanted to go about it in a very respectful manner. But at the same time, knowing what has happened the last couple of years and what we can do together moving forward, we just wanted to be respected with the number that we got. And the Niners did that, man.
“I thought the 53 number was awesome. And now we can have a great team, great cap space, too — so move things around and for them to do their thing and continue to have guys around me to make plays and go win together.”
Purdy said he didn’t request or get a specific promise from the 49ers that they’d take the money he left on the table and put it back into the roster. But there should be a presumption that this will happen. That’s what sensible sides understand.
“Not necessarily, like, ‘All right, now we gave you all this room, go do this,'” Purdy said. “That’s not my job. My job is, hey, like I understand where we’re at with the cap and all that. But for me, it’s … this is what I think I’m worth. And obviously I’m not going to ask for something that can be detrimental to our team. And I think we’ve seen that somewhat with just how teams have handled things with certain players across the league.
“And I just want to continue to be able to play with guys around me that we could all be a united team and win together. And I understand that’s so important, man, to win championships.”
A birdie on 18 … and later, a fishing boat
I asked: Have you decided whether to buy the fishing boat you mentioned a few days after signing the deal?
“I haven’t gotten it yet,” Purdy said, “but I know at some point, either later this offseason or hopefully next offseason, I’ll make the purchase.”
Not such a big splurge for somebody who received a $40-million signing bonus, of course. But anything more flamboyant would be completely out of character. Amid the 49ers’ cost-cutting earlier this offseason and then the fair extensions for Purdy, Fred Warner, and George Kittle, it’s all about pragmatism around the 49ers these days.
It’s also about the kind of genuine — and quiet — emotion that Purdy experienced the moment he found out the deal was done, which happened while he was on the 17th hole at the Olympic Club’s famous Lake Course, playing with his wife and Jake Brendel and his wife.
“When we’re golfing, my agent texted me saying, ‘We’re getting close,'” Purdy said. “And then a couple of holes go by, and I look at my phone again and I had a missed call and he goes, ‘Dude, pick up the phone,’ from John Lynch. ‘IT’S DONE,’ in all caps. And so then that moment right there, my heart dropped and I was like, this is crazy, it’s happening.
“I just hugged my wife on the golf cart and gave her a kiss. It was a cool little moment, just us two, there wasn’t anyone else freaking out or anything. It was just us going like, you know, this happened and God is so good and we’re just thankful for it.”
So after all that was done, how’d you do on No. 18, Brock?
“Oh, I birdied, so that was good,” Purdy said. “But man, that was a special day, getting out golfing in San Francisco, like the city I represent for the Niners, and to be able to be out there and then all of a sudden get a call, it was pretty special.”
The Purdy-Haliburton journey continues
I’ve written about Purdy’s long friendship with Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton, dating back to when they both were relatively unheralded freshmen at Iowa State through their parallel rises to the top levels of their leagues.
And now that Haliburton has led the Pacers to the NBA Finals (just like Purdy led the 49ers to the Super Bowl two seasons ago) and Purdy has signed his deal (which is the same length and only $5 million more than the contract Haliburton signed in 2023), this is getting kind of amazing.
“Going back to the Iowa State days, we were literally like in accounting and stats and like all these classes together, sitting next to each other trying to get through the classes and all that,” Purdy said. “We all love Tyrese, man. And obviously when you went to games and you saw how passionate and competitive he was, and anytime he was on the court, man, we knew that we had a chance.
“And so to be able to have the whole world see that now on a national level, for me, it’s been really cool just because we’ve been seeing this, you know, since we were freshmen back at Iowa State.”
Did Purdy know back then that Haliburton would get this far?
“Tyrese was just moving extremely fast all over the court at Iowa State, making plays, dishing the ball, really cool passes,” Purdy said. “And he was so tall for being a point guard and stuff, I was, like, you know, this is crazy.”
Purdy said he hasn’t bothered Haliburton during the Pacers’ playoff run and certainly wants to leave him alone during the Finals, which start Thursday in Oklahoma City. But Purdy laughed and said it was actually Haliburton reaching out to him recently when the 49ers’ schedule came out and their Dec. 22 game in Indianapolis caught Haliburton’s attention.
“He actually texted me after the schedule release,” Purdy said. “He was, like, ‘Hey man, you guys come here’ — I guess the Colts — ‘and I got a suite for you and your family if y’all need it.’ I was like, ‘Man, thank you.’ And this was right after one of their big games. I was like, this guy is hilarious. …
“I’ve played in the Super Bowl and stuff, so I understand. … I’m letting him take care of business and hopefully I’ll be able to text him and congratulate him at the end.”
A natural and larger leadership role
Kyle Shanahan has been hinting at this theme for a while now: After losing or discarding so many veterans this offseason, the 49ers need more veterans to do everything possible to show the new players what it takes to win at the level the 49ers have reached several times in this era.
And Purdy knows he has to be one of those leading veterans now. Warner and Kittle will always be the guys with the loudest voices and most pelts on the wall. Trent Williams and Nick Bosa are obvious elite role models. But it’s time for Purdy and others to speak up, too. It’s not just because he’s making more than anybody else in the locker room, but that’s part of it.
“I feel like I understand what it takes to win here,” Purdy said. “And I have to do what I can and lean on my expertise and my leadership that I’ve had in the last three years and continue to grow, and push guys, man, and love on guys, show them that, ‘Hey, you can fail or this or that, but let’s get better, let’s learn from it.’ Be that kind of voice. I don’t think the dollar amount should change how my process is.
“It’s just the fact that our team is new and I have to be the guy that, or a guy, along with Fred and Kittle and (Christian) McCaffrey, all the guys that continue to be a voice that guys can rely on and go to and help push the envelope here with our culture.”
Subscribe to The Dime
News, gossip, and inside-the-locker-room access for Bay Area sports fans, every Friday and Monday.
Were the 49ers actually not terrible last year?
They were 6-11. They looked awful at times. But when I asked Purdy if there were some positive signs — from himself and the team — within all that, he had a strong and immediate answer.
“People can make this narrative that we didn’t make (the) playoffs and we had guys that were hurt (so people asked), ‘Does that correlate to how good Brock is?’ or whatever,” Purdy said. “But in my eyes, we’re a couple plays away from winning games (early in the season) and getting in the playoffs and having a run.
“Obviously, we had some guys that were hurt and stuff that, I mean, anytime you take away an All-Pro running back (McCaffrey) or someone else, a receiver, Brandon Aiyuk, they get hurt, obviously it’s just different, you know? The explosive plays might be a little bit different and working hard for what you get is different. But we’re a couple of plays away from winning some games and closing out games that we really had won that we sort of just gave away.”
A powerful end-of-season message
When Purdy met the media on locker-room cleanout day after last season, he was direct about his contract and he was clear about his place on the 49ers. I figured at the time that he wasn’t the kind of guy to speak like this off the cuff. He must’ve just heard that from Shanahan and Lynch minutes earlier.
Turns out, yes, that’s exactly what happened. And coming off of the travails of that season and all the criticism heaped on everybody, including Purdy, it meant a lot to Purdy then. Still does. You can draw a direct line from those moments in January to the contract in May and Purdy’s certainty right now.
“For me, this was all sort of new, just in terms of not making (the) playoffs last year,” Purdy said. “All I knew was making it to NFC Championship Games, to the Super Bowl, and big moments, big games, stuff like that. So when we didn’t make the playoffs, I was, like, ‘All right, what does this look like as a quarterback and the pressure of the offseason and everything, and my job. How does that all look or feel?’
“But to hear Kyle tell me and John say that no, I’m their guy and they’re gonna continue to ride with me and believe in me. Obviously I’ve shown in the past what I can do for this organization and things happen, yes, but we just gotta learn from it, and we actually do have to get better from it. And there’s a standard here, and they coach me hard on that. But they’ve told me time and time again that I’m their guy and we’re gonna get this thing right together.”