Brock Purdy’s September has turned into a full-on statement, and the league just stamped it with hardware.
The 49ers quarterback was named NFC Offensive Player of the Month after steering San Francisco to a 3-0 start with wins over the Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, and Arizona Cardinals. That puts Purdy in rare company inside the franchise, too - only Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Jeff Garcia had previously won the award as 49ers quarterbacks.
The numbers behind the honor are loud. Through three games, Purdy has completed 72.3% of his passes, a career high, while piling up 789 passing yards, nine touchdowns and just one interception.
His 133.1 passer rating leads the NFL. He’s also added 93 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown.
He’s been especially efficient in a way that separates good quarterback play from the kind that bends a defense out of shape. Purdy is the only quarterback in the league to post multiple touchdown passes and a passer rating above 100 in each of his first three games this season. And in Week 2 against Miami, he made history by becoming the first player ever to complete more than 90% of his passes - 20 of 22 - while throwing for at least 285 yards, two touchdowns and a rushing score in the same game.
The national conversation around Purdy has shifted fast, and plenty of voices have made that clear.
Pat McAfee said on The Pat McAfee Show, "It looks like right now we might be seeing M-V-Purdy. This might be Purdy’s year of winning it all.
He has come out on fire... All he has done is continue to dissect and absolutely methodically diabolically beat the hell out of defenses."
ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky offered his own praise: "There’s no quarterback in football that’s playing as well as Brock... The fundamental part of the passing, timing, rhythm of the offense gets to excel with the way he’s playing. He also makes so many plus plays or off-script plays that just get overlooked so often."
Damien Woody, a two-time Super Bowl champion, was just as direct: "I’m absolutely a buyer of Brock Purdy. I think he is one of, if not the best, processor that we have in the National Football League...
It’s his mind that is elite. That, to me, is Brady-esque-the way he uses [his] mind to exploit these defenses."
Colin Cowherd, long counted among Purdy’s skeptics, has also changed his tune, pointing to Purdy’s downfield aggressiveness, pocket mobility and processing speed.
Purdy’s pre-snap work still drives the engine, but his growth as a runner has given San Francisco another layer. The 49ers have protected him well, too - through three games, he has not taken a sack. And when plays break down, he’s already shown he can make defenses pay off-script, with those 93 rushing yards coming close to his total from the 2023 season, when he ran for 144 yards.
Even with key targets like Mike Evans and Trent Williams dealing with injuries, Purdy has kept the 49ers moving by reading secondaries, handling blitzes and running Kyle Shanahan’s offense with precision. The result has San Francisco sitting atop the NFC West, with Purdy now carrying the look of an early MVP candidate if this pace keeps up into October.
In Other News...
Tom Bradys Latest Rankings Set Up A Chiefs Debate
Tom Bradys latest FOX Sports power rankings landed after Week 3 and gave the 49ers another bit of national validation for their 3-0 start. He bumped San Francisco all the way to No. 1, while the Seahawks slid to No. 6 after taking their first loss, and he also singled out Brock Purdy for the way he has played through the opening stretch of the season.
The rest of Bradys list is what opens the door to the next debate, because he packed the Chiefs, Bills, Vikings and Raiders into the top five around San Francisco. With Kansas City still part of the conversation and the top of the board already stirring discussion, the 49ers now find themselves at the center of an early-season argument about which contender truly deserves the highest spot. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Fans Just Got Wild Broncos Fuel Before This Matchup
With the 49ers set to face the Broncos, a recent radio segment out of Denver offered San Francisco fans a little extra bulletin-board material. Hosts Josh Dover and Cecil Lammey weighed Brock Purdy against Bo Nix and came down on the side of the Broncos rookie, pointing to Nixs fourth-quarter comebacks as the main reason they liked him better heading into the matchup.
The conversation did not stop at quarterback. Dover and Lammey also gave Sean Payton the edge over Kyle Shanahan, leaning on Paytons Super Bowl ring and broader coaching rsum. It is the kind of talk that can sharpen a game like this, especially when the evidence on the field may not line up with the confidence behind the mic. [Read more 🡒]
Kyle Shanahan Reignites A 49ers Officiating Debate Fans Know Too Well
Pass interference has been back in the conversation around the 49ers, and not in a way anyone in Santa Clara enjoys. Recent controversial calls around the league involving the Cardinals, Rams and Broncos only added fuel to an argument San Francisco fans know well, especially with Kyle Shanahan weighing in on the NFLs old experiment with challenging defensive pass interference. Shanahan said he no longer supports that rule, pointing to how it affected the flow of games when the league tried it.
For the 49ers, the frustration is part of a familiar pattern under Shanahan. San Francisco has spent plenty of time on the wrong side of officiating debates during his tenure, and a recent unnecessary roughness penalty on Fred Warner only kept that irritation simmering. Even when the play itself is over, the discussion around the whistle rarely is, which is why Shanahans latest comments landed with so many 49ers followers. [Read more 🡒]