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Is 49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy Underrated or Overrated?

Brock Purdy might be the most polarizing quarterback in the NFL.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) awaits his turn in a passing drill during a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) awaits his turn in a passing drill during a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Brock Purdy might be the most polarizing quarterback in the NFL.

Some people believe he's criminally underrated because he's small, he has a relatively weak arm and he plays in a good system with lots of dangerous playmakers around him.

Other people think Purdy is criminally overrated because he's just a product of the 49ers' system and weapons.

CBS Sports buys into the former narrative -- Purdy is underrated.

"The pendulum swings back and forth in NFL conversations, and it's swung more dramatically for Purdy than just about any player," writes CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin. "First he was the darling of the league, going from 'Mr. Irrelevant' to improbably poised point guard for Kyle Shanahan's title contender.

"Then he was just a pawn of Shanahan's San Francisco 49ers attack. Critics got even more fuel in 2024, when the fragility of the 49ers' lineup finally exacerbated his struggles when playing from behind. Maybe he's not the prototype that is Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson. But Purdy is still the best, most dynamic, most collected quarterback of the Shanahan era, far more capable of extending and creating plays than many suggest."

Benjamin makes good points, but I don't think anyone questions Purdy's ability to scramble and extend plays. That's arguably his best ability.

What people question about Purdy is his ability to win close games. He flopped at the end of the Super Bowl, and then he lost every close game except one last season. He's going to be in many more close games the next few years -- can he carry the 49ers to victory?

If not, he's overrated.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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