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How Much Better than Jimmy Garoppolo is Brock Purdy?

Back in 2020 when Garoppolo went to the Super Bowl, most people considered him a top-10 quarterback. Better than Kirk Cousins and even better than Tom Brady. Of course, that was wrong.

Grant Cohn

Aug 13, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (right) and San
Aug 13, 2023; Paradise, Nevada, USA; Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (right) and San / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
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Anyone who has seen Brock Purdy and Jimmy Garoppolo play quarterback knows that Purdy is better. But how much better?

It's hard to quantify how good Purdy truly is because stats lie. Just look at Garoppolo. His advanced statistics were off the charts when he was the 49ers starting quarterback -- they were better than Aaron Rodgers' advanced stats. And he was a winner. Remember, Garoppolo started his career with a win-loss record of 18-3. Purdy's record is 17-4. And Purdy plays with Christian McCaffrey. Garoppolo went to the Super Bowl without McCaffrey. Could Purdy do that? What would his numbers look like if he had to play an entire season without the Offensive Player of the Year in the backfield?

Back in 2020 when Garoppolo went to the Super Bowl, most people considered him a top-10 quarterback. Better than Kirk Cousins and even better than Tom Brady. Of course, that was wrong. Garoppolo was a mirage. He slowly faded with the 49ers, then signed with the Raiders and crashed and burned. Now he's the Rams backup quarterback. Soon he could be out of the league.

At his peak, Garoppolo never was a top 20 quarterback in the league despite his excellent numbers. In retrospect, those numbers were a reflection of the team around him.

Which brings us to Purdy. Most people agree he's a top-10 quarterback in the NFL, and he might be one. Or he might be another product of the 49ers' system. It's hard to know until we see him play for a different team. Would he put up MVP numbers on the Raiders, or would he struggle like Garoppolo did? And how many other teams would Purdy start for? Would he start for the Bears over Caleb Williams? Would he start for the Cardinals over Kyler Murray? Would he start for the Packers over Jordan Love? I highly doubt it.

These are questions the 49ers need to think about before they make Purdy one of the highest-paid players in NFL history.

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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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