CBS Ranks 49ers QB Brock Purdy the NFL's 2nd Best QB

Purdy is a good quarterback and a great fit for the 49ers, but does he carry his offense the way other quarterbacks carry theirs?

January 20, 2024; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) during the / Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

This seems like a stretch.

CBS's Cody Benjamin recently ranked all the starting quarterbacks in the NFL from the best to the worst, and he ranked Brock Purdy second after Patrick Mahomes. Seriously.

"Let's give the kid the respect he deserves," Benjamin wrote. "Two seasons, two NFC title games, one valiant Super Bowl effort. Does he have a sterling setup in San Francisco? Yep. Does he operate like a 10-year vet, managing the pocket as both an efficient and mobile gunslinger? Also yep."

Let's go through Benjamin's arguments one by one.

1. A Valiant Super Bowl Effort

Benjamin says Purdy is the second-best quarterback in the league because he scored one touchdown and posted a quarterback rating of 89.3 while losing the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts scored 4 touchdowns and posted a quarterback rating of 103.4 while losing the Super Bowl a year ago, and he's ranked 7th. And Matthew Stafford actually won the Super Bowl two years ago, and he's ranked 16th.

2. A Sterling Setup

Benjamin describes Purdy's supporting cast as "sterling," when in fact it's the best group of weapons in the NFL. The 49ers have six All Pros on their offense and Purdy isn't one of them.

3. An Effecient and Mobile Gunslinger

Is Purdy efficient? Yes. Is he mobile? Definitely. But is he a gunslinger? It's hard to call him one when he never has thrown more than 39 passes in a game. Plus he's 7-4 when he throws at least 30 passes in a game as opposed to 14-2 when he throws fewer than 30 passes. Gunslingers have to be able to win shootouts, and Purdy hasn't been in one yet.

Purdy is a good quarterback and a great fit for the 49ers, but he simply doesn't carry his offense the way other quarterbacks carry theirs. Last year, there was a three-game stretch in which the 49ers had four All Pros on offense instead of six because Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel were out, and the 49ers lost all three of those games, and Purdy wasn't efficient in any of them. So the supporting cast certainly elevates him the way it elevated Jimmy Garoppolo before him.

I wouldn't rank Purdy higher than 10th in the league until I see him perform well when there's fewer than six All Pros around him.