Brock Purdy is Not a Game Manager

SANTA CLARA -- When you look at Brock Purdy, you see a quarterback who should be a game manager. But that's not how he sees himself.

Alex Smith was the quintessential game manager. His No. 1 priority was not making mistakes or losing the game by himself. Anything positive he did was a bonus.

Purdy doesn't have this mindset. In fact, he has the opposite mindset. He sees himself as a playmaker, like Brett Favre or something, even though he doesn't have Favre's arm nor stature. Not even close.

"It's a mindset," Purdy explained on Thursday. "Just playing without fear. The fear of failure is something that I feel like I've learned over the years, especially in college. If you go out there and have that mentality of, I don't want to mess up, then you start playing timid and then you're obviously not playing like yourself, like you have growing up your whole life with that competitive edge. So that's one thing that I've learned for sure is to try to take out fear, throw it out the window, and play clear-minded, play like a surgeon. Do what Kyle (Shanahan) is asking of me, but being smart with the ball at the same time, but also having the mentality of playing fearless and that doesn't mean play reckless but be smart with the ball, play within the offense and scheme, if something happens where it's off schedule, play ball. So I'm still learning that honestly, but I feel like that's how I look at it right now.”

It's been so long since the 49ers had a quarterback with this playmaker mentality. Jimmy Garoppolo certainly didn't have -- you could feel his anxiety through the television screen when he held onto the ball for more than two seconds and had to ad lib. He didn't want to.

Purdy is eager to ad lib. Eager to show he's more than just a product of the system. And that sometimes leads to interceptions, and other times leads to huge plays.

At least he knows who he is.