All 49ers

These Brock Purdy stats will shock San Franicsco 49ers fans

You've got to see this.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13).
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13). | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

In this story:


Brock Purdy is in a bit of a slump.

To be fair, he's also injured. He hurt his toe in Week 1, missed Weeks 2 and 3 and then reinjured his toe in Week 4. Now, it's unclear how much time he'll have to miss.

But, Purdy's struggles started far before he injured his toe. It's hard to fathom Purdy playing so poorly, because he made playing quarterback seem so easy for the first two seasons of his career. Now, everything seems so difficult for him, especially winning.

Purdy's past 16 regular season starts

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13).
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13). | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Forget Purdy's first couple seasons and playoff runs. Those are ancient history. Let's focus on his past 16 starts -- that's almost a full season. Here are his numbers during this span: 6 wins, 10 losses, 4,219 passing yards, 24 TD passes, 16 interceptions.

Not great.

Let's compare those numbers to the ones Nick Mullens produced in his 16 career starts with the 49ers: 5 wins, 11 losses, 4,300 passing yards, 23 TD passes, 21 interceptions.

Keep in mind, Mullens is a career backup and Purdy is the seventh-highest-paid player in the NFL.

The main difference between their numbers is that Purdy threw five fewer interceptions than Mullens. The rest of their numbers are practically identical. Which means that for the past year, Purdy has been a more mobile, slightly less mistake-prone version of Nick Mullens.

Again, not great.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens (4).
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Nick Mullens (4). | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

And now that Purdy has a toe injury, he's playing more like Mullens than ever. That's because Purdy suddenly isn't mobile, nor can he use his lower body to create velocity. He has to throw flat-footed, which is something Jimmy Garoppolo could do because his arm was strong enough. Purdy and Mullens cannot throw flatfooted, and they get in big trouble when they attempt to make those throws. See: last week against the Jaguars.

Both Purdy and Mullens are shorter quarterbacks who have trouble seeing their receivers and finding throwing lanes in the pocket. As a result, they throw to spots with anticipation and often get picked off. And the more they play, the more mistakes they seem to make.

It remains to be seen if Purdy's career will take the same turn that Mullens' did. His interception percentage this season is a grotesque 5.5 -- even Jameis Winston isn't this mistake-prone. If he keeps throwing interceptions, the 49ers will have no choice but to bench him for Mac Jones.

Better snap out of it, Brock.

Read more


Published
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.

Share on XFollow grantcohn