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Should the 49ers Trade Brock Purdy in 2025?

If the 49ers make Purdy the highest-paid player in the NFL next year, no one will criticize them, because he's a terrific quarterback. But it may not be the right move for them.
Grant Cohn|
Feb 7, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) speaks during a
Feb 7, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) speaks during a | Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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San Francisco 49ers

Brock Purdy is the biggest bargain in sports right now, but in a year he could be the highest-paid player in the NFL. Should the 49ers pay him all that money or trade him next year instead?

Jed York clearly wants to pay him -- he said so at the NFL Annual Meeting. Franchise quarterbacks are extremely difficult to find and Purdy is the best QB the 49ers have had since Jeff Garcia. So trading Purdy would be a tough sell to 49ers ownership, although he probably would be worth multiple first-round picks.

If the 49ers make Purdy the highest-paid player in the NFL next year, no one will criticize them, because he's a terrific quarterback. But it may not be the right move for them.

The 49ers are a run first-team. They barely throw the ball 30 times per game. Passing is an afterthought for them -- it's not the focus of their team. With the exception of Trent Williams, the offensive linemen are a bunch of zone-blocking specialists who struggle in pass protection. And schematically, the 49ers offense is much more advanced and cutting edge when it comes to running the ball as opposed to passing.

As long as Kyle Shanahan is the head coach, Jake Brendel is the center, Jon Feliciano is the right guard and Colton McKivitz is the right tackle, it doesn't make sense for the 49ers to spend a ton of money on their passing game.

So unless the 49ers fire Shanahan, revamp their offensive line and change their entire offensive philosophy, they'd be better off trading Pudy in a year than extending his contract. That's the cold, hard truth.

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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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