Brock Purdy has thrown enough touchdowns to Kyle Juszczyk now that even the fullback had to do a double take.
Against the Dolphins, with San Francisco parked inside Miami’s 5-yard line, Purdy drifted to his right and found Juszczyk slipping into the flat. The throw was quick, the catch was clean, and the rest was an easy walk into the end zone.
If that sounded familiar, it should have. It had the same feel as the touchdown Purdy threw to Juszczyk back in 2022, when he came on in relief for Jimmy Garoppolo after Garoppolo suffered a foot injury.
After the game, the 49ers’ media team showed Juszczyk clips of both scores, and he couldn’t separate one from the other.
"Is this 2022 or 2026, they look like the exact same play to me," Juszczyk admitted. "I literally was going to tell our media team to make this video."
The team beat him to it.
Purdy got the same side-by-side treatment and immediately recognized the resemblance.
"It's crazy," the quarterback said when looking at the two plays. "Déjà vu.
Yeah, that was actually crazy. Same corner, same everything."
He also made clear it wasn’t literally the same design as the touchdown that gave him his first career score in 2022, but the similarities are obvious enough.
What stands out most, though, is how different Purdy’s place in the league is now. Back then, he was the final pick in the NFL Draft and still an unknown rookie. Now, he’s one of the 49ers’ defining players, and throws like the one to Juszczyk against Miami are part of the expectation.
Good for him to ascend such a career arc.
In Other News...
49ers WR Injuries Could Force A Trade For Former First Rounder
Early-season injuries have already thinned out the 49ers receiver room, and that kind of problem tends to get attention fast in Santa Clara. When the depth chart starts wobbling at wideout, the conversation usually turns from short-term patch jobs to bigger swings, especially for a team that expects to stay in the playoff hunt and cant afford to let a promising start get bogged down by attrition.
One name now floating into that discussion is Jerry Jeudy, with Bleacher Reports Moe Moton pointing to the Browns as a possible trade partner. Clevelands new coaching staff is leaning into younger players, and Jeudys role and production have both faded enough to make a deal conceivable if the price is right. For San Francisco, it is the sort of move that makes sense on paper, even if the real question is whether the 49ers feel pressure to act before the market gets thinner. [Read more 🡒]
Brock Purdy Led A 49ers Rout But The Grades Get More Interesting
Brock Purdys sharp afternoon in the 49ers 35-13 win over the Dolphins carried over into the numbers game, too. Pro Football Focus handed him the highest overall offensive grade in the NFL for Week 2 after he completed 20 of 22 passes for 287 yards, threw two touchdowns and added a rushing score, all while San Franciscos line kept him clean and did not allow a sack.
The grading also painted a fuller picture of how the offense functioned around him, with George Kittle standing out in the receiving evaluation and Kyle Juszczyk earning his usual value in the mix. Not every name landed as high, though, and the split in the grades makes the review of this rout a little more interesting for a 49ers team that looked dominant on the scoreboard but still gave PFF plenty to sort through. [Read more 🡒]
49ers Fan Captured The NFL Streaming Frustration Everyone Feels
At Levis Stadium during the 49ers home opener, one fan managed to turn a handmade sign into a small but sharp snapshot of a bigger problem around the NFLs modern viewing experience. The message spoke to what has become an increasingly familiar annoyance for fans trying to follow games online, where access is split across multiple platforms instead of sitting in one place.
Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Paramount+ and Netflix have all become part of the leagues fragmented streaming landscape, and each one comes with its own subscription hurdle. The sign struck a chord because it reflected a frustration many viewers know well, the sense that watching football digitally now requires more juggling, more spending and a lot more patience than it used to. [Read more 🡒]