Brock Purdy is Not the Next Joe Montana

Brock Purdy might be the "real deal," but he's not the next Joe Montana. Not even close.

People were comparing Purdy to Montana not too long ago because neither one has a strong arm. Seriously. But Montana won four Super Bowls, while Purdy has won just 10 games. And most people who compare those two never saw Montana play in the first place.

So I asked my dad, former San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Lowell Cohn, who covered the 49ers from 1979 to 2016, to describe the difference between Montana and Purdy.

LOWELL COHN: "Joe was a winner. Joe was the kind of quarterback, if the game was close and they were behind, it was never over. He was so precise, so calm. He owned the game. This kid, he doesn't have that. He's not calm. Did you see his face yesterday? In addition, he failed. He didn't lose -- he failed. He had two chances to win the game, and he threw picks on the last two series. Joe didn't do things like that. Steve didn't do things like that. It's not that they went four and out. He gave away the game twice. He gave it away, and then he got another chance, and he gave it away again. Joe didn't do things like that. Last night, Brock had two crisis moments when he could have won the game, and he was not up to it either time. And the passes Kyle Shanahan asked him to throw were not that difficult. It's not like you could say Kyle asked too much of him. I didn't think they did. I think they were well within his capability, and he blew it. I don't know why he blew it, but Joe didn't do things like that."