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ESPN Projects 49ers Quarterback Brock Purdy to Return to Form

Last season couldn't have gone much worse for Brock Purdy.
Grant Cohn|
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach harasses Brock Purdy (13) in a passing drill during a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Jun 11, 2025; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach harasses Brock Purdy (13) in a passing drill during a team OTA at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images | D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

Last season couldn't have gone much worse for Brock Purdy.

He lost all but one close game he played in. To be fair, the 49ers lost those games as a team -- Purdy wasn't solely at fault. But when the 49ers needed him to carry the offense during critical moments while other stars were out, Purdy failed.

Now, most of those stars on offense are back. The one who isn't fully healthy yet is Brandon Aiyuk, but he will return midseason.

That's why ESPN projects Purdy to return to form this year.

"2023's No. 6 QB regressed some in 2024, certainly in part because of the health of others surrounding him," writes ESPN senior fantasy football writer Eric Karabell. "Purdy still performed at a high level, finishing third in yards per attempt and more than doubling his rushing production. The 49ers were quick to make a long-term investment in Purdy, hardly forgetting his monster 2023 season. Purdy has the skills to be a safe QB1 option, but he sure isn't being drafted that way."

From a fantasy football perspective, there are reasons to be concerned about Purdy in 2025. For one, his interception perception has gone up three years in a row. In 2022, it was 2.4 percent. In 2023, 2.5 percent. And in 2024, 2.6 percent. That's a trend. Keep in mind, the league average last season was 2.2 percent.

In addition. Purdy's touchdown percentage has gone down three years in a row, from 7.6 percent in 2022, to 7.0 percent in 2023, to a dreary 4.4 percent in 2024 (the league average was 4.5 percent last season. That's another troubling trend.

The league may be beginning to catch up to Purdy as a passer. He can't see the whole field from the pocket because he's short for a quarterback, so he often throws blindly to spots, anticipating where his receivers will be. This leads to some incredible completions and some awful interceptions as well.

He needs to get back to checking the ball down to his running backs, otherwise his numbers will continue to get worse.

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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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