Brock Purdy Eyes Mechanical Fixes, Mental Edge as 49ers Push Toward Playoff Form
As the playoff race heats up, Brock Purdy is taking a hard look in the mirror-and not just in the film room. The 49ers quarterback, still shaking off the rust from his return from injury, knows his current level of play isn’t quite where it needs to be if San Francisco is going to make a serious postseason run.
Purdy’s been steady, but the Niners are going to need more than steady if they want to go toe-to-toe with the NFC’s elite. And he knows it.
“There’s been moments where I’ve got to drive the ball better,” Purdy admitted this week. “Mechanically, I want to continue to strive for just my accuracy and stuff. I feel like there’s been moments where I can be better with that.”
That honesty is telling. Purdy isn’t hiding behind excuses-he’s owning the fact that while he’s been serviceable, there’s room to grow.
And that growth starts with the fundamentals. Coming off a season spent rehabbing a significant toe injury, Purdy’s focus has been on getting healthy and back to feeling like himself.
Now, with a week of rest and a few practices under his belt, he says he’s feeling “fresh”-and ready to sharpen the edges of his game.
But it’s not just the mechanics. Purdy’s also leaning into the mental side of the game, rewatching situational moments from earlier in the season and looking for ways to be more efficient.
“I think for me it’s in the end of the stretch here-four games, regular season-how can I be better?” he said. “I thought the last game in Cleveland was a pretty good test for me to take care of the ball, be smart with it, throw it away, and then stay on the field when we can.”
That game in Cleveland, while not flashy, was a reminder of what Purdy can be when he plays within himself: a smart, poised quarterback who protects the football and keeps drives alive. But if the Niners are going to beat teams like the Rams-or any of the heavyweights waiting in January-they’ll need more than just ball security.
They’ll need production. And that’s where the conversation shifts.
Right now, Purdy’s numbers have hovered around the 170-yard mark in recent outings. That’s been enough to keep the 49ers in the win column, thanks in large part to a defense that continues to be one of the league’s most formidable units. But when the margin for error tightens in the playoffs, that kind of output may not cut it.
To his credit, Purdy seems to understand that. He hasn’t lost confidence.
He hasn’t lost command. And he certainly hasn’t forgotten how to play quarterback at a high level.
But he’s also not pretending that everything is clicking just yet. The mechanical tweaks, the situational awareness, the chip-on-the-shoulder mentality-those are all part of the plan to get back to the version of Brock Purdy that helped ignite this 49ers offense in the first place.
The good news for San Francisco? They don’t need Purdy to be perfect right now.
They need him to keep progressing. If he can continue to clean up the small things-tighten his footwork, sharpen his accuracy, make the right reads under pressure-the ceiling is still high.
And with a playoff berth well within reach, that’s exactly what the 49ers are hoping to see down the stretch.
For now, Purdy remains a steady hand. But if the Niners are going to make real noise in January, they’ll need him to be more than that.
They’ll need him to take the next step. And based on what he’s saying-and how he’s approaching these final games-he’s locked in on doing just that.