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Will 49ers QB Brock Purdy Have a Bounce-Back Season in 2025?

Maybe Purdy was pressing because he was trying to prove he's worth $60 million per season.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 24, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) during the fourth quarter against the Washington Commanders at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Dec 24, 2022; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) during the fourth quarter against the Washington Commanders at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stan Szeto-Imagn Images | Stan Szeto-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Last season didn't go so well for Brock Purdy.

Granted, he lost some weapons. Christian McCaffrey missed 13 games, Brandon Aiyuk missed 10 and Deebo Samuel was just terrible. But Purdy still had the best tight end in football plus a run game that averaged 4.7 yards per carry -- seventh-best in the league.

That's a big reason he played so well early in games in 2024. Before halftime, his passer rating was 104.7 -- sixth-best in the NFL among quarterbacks who attempted at least 100 throws in the first half. After halftime, his passer rating fell to 86.1 -- 22nd-best in the NFL.

Why did Purdy get worse later in games?

For the first time in his NFL career, he found himself in close games almost every week. In previous seasons, the 49ers often blew teams out and put them away as early as the third quarter. So he didn't face many high-pressure moments in the regular season.

Last year, all he faced was high-pressure moments. And for the most part, he crumbled. He threw 10 interceptions and just eight touchdown passes in the second half. Meaning he tried to do too much and be a hero which cost his team.

Maybe Purdy was pressing because he was trying to prove he's worth $60 million per season. Maybe if he gets a contract extension this offseason, he'll go back to playing the way he did when he was an MVP finalist in 2023.

But if McCaffrey misses more time and Purdy has to put the 49ers on his back in the second halves of big games, watch out.

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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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