Brock Purdy has already shown he can handle Miami’s pressure, and one ESPN analyst thinks Sunday could be even cleaner.
Seth Walder included the 49ers quarterback in his bold predictions for the Sunday and Monday slate, and his call was as direct as they come: Purdy gets through the afternoon without a single hit. "The Dolphins won't record a single QB hit against Brock Purdy," Walder wrote.
"The 49ers didn't allow the Rams to sack Purdy at all in Week 1. That means the Dolphins' pass rush, which made the Raiders ' offensive line look great last week, should be a piece of cake."
That prediction leans heavily on what Miami just failed to do in Las Vegas. The Dolphins were held without a sack in a 27-13 loss to the Raiders, and a pass rush that couldn’t even bother that line now has to find a way to bother San Francisco.
Purdy opened the season by completing 25 of 34 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns in a 27-7 win over the Rams in Australia. He wasn’t sacked once, even with injuries piling up around the roster and questions lingering about the interior protection. Connor Colby handled the Week 1 job at left guard and finished with a 59.5 overall offensive grade from PFF.
There’s also a familiar reference point for this matchup, and it goes back to Purdy’s first real turn against Miami in 2022. In Week 7, Jimmy Garoppolo went down injured, and the final pick of that year’s draft was thrown into the game with no warning. Purdy responded by going 25 of 37 for 210 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception in a 33-17 San Francisco win.
Miami brought pressure all afternoon in that game, but Purdy didn’t get rattled. He stayed composed, moved through his reads quickly, and found the right throw instead of forcing something short and safe.
The game plan told its own story, too. Christian McCaffrey finished with 17 carries, while Purdy had 37 dropbacks. That’s not how a staff plays it when it thinks its quarterback is in over his head, which is why Kyle Shanahan’s message to principal owner Jed York - that Purdy might already be the best quarterback on the roster - now sounds like something rooted in what he had already seen.
What came next only deepened that impression. Purdy made his first career start against Tom Brady’s Buccaneers, then carved up Seattle’s secondary, and the run kept rolling until he and the rest of the quarterback room were hurt in the NFC Championship Game against Philadelphia.
Now the picture is different in every way. Purdy is leading a contender, while Miami could wind up with the league’s worst record. Still, if there’s one thing Purdy already knows, it’s that the gap on paper doesn’t mean much once the ball is snapped.
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