Bursting onto the NFL stage two years ago was a rookie quarterback who filled in for an injury-riddled San Francisco 49ers roster.
In year three, the former Iowa State Cyclone may be on the hot seat in the Niners’ final three games of the 2024 regular season.
San Francisco has again been hit hard with injuries to its roster on both sides of the ball. At 6-8 entering Week 16, the team is on pace to miss the playoffs for the first time in four years.
This, perhaps, is why the 49ers are at a crossroads with Brock Purdy, who could command big money from the defending NFC champions, or he could be auditioning for his next team.
Regardless, these are the three things Purdy must do to extend his career in the Bay Area.
1. Avoid throwing interceptions
Simply put, turning over the ball can’t happen at the rate it does from Purdy this season. While he has nine interceptions on the year now, he had 11 last season in total over 17 starts.
In the Week 5 loss at home against the Arizona Cardinals, Purdy threw two interceptions. The 49ers lost the game by one point. Two games later, Purdy threw three more picks in the 10-point loss against the Kansas City Chiefs.
While these have been the only instances this season where San Francisco’s signal-caller has thrown multiple picks in the same game, there were others in 2023.
During the Christmas Day game versus the Baltimore Ravens last season, Purdy threw for four interceptions in the blowout loss against the eventual AFC North.
That was nearly a third of his picks on the year.
After starting out 5-0 in 2023, San Francisco entered a Week 9 bye week with a three-game losing streak, and Purdy threw five interceptions during that span including two picks in each of the losses to the Minnesota Vikings and the Cincinnati Bengals.
A continued trend like that to close out 2024 would be telling, and not in a good way.
Interceptions are costly to the 49ers as they are not scoring as much this season compared to a year ago. Thus, Purdy must do a better job of finding his receivers downfield and avoiding the opposing team’s secondary.
2. Brock Purdy must score more
Even more blatant, the third-year quarterback isn’t finding the end zone as often as he is used to. In 2023, Purdy threw for 31 touchdowns compared to just 15 this season.
With three games remaining, the former seventh-round pick is barely on pace to throw for 20 scores this season. Purdy has connected with tight end George Kittle seven times that resulted in a touchdown and six times with wide receiver Jauan Jennings.
However, the quarterback’s only other touchdown passes were to wide receiver Deebo Samuel and rookie wideout Ricky Pearsall. Of note, the 49ers have played most of the season without star offensive players, Christian McCaffrey and Brandon Aiyuk.
San Francisco’s next opponent, the Miami Dolphins, is the eighth-best passing defense in terms of passing yards allowed and in the top half of the league in points allowed. Purdy will face a stingy defense on Sunday ahead of competing against the Detroit Lions and the season-finale rematch against the Cardinals at Arizona.
Both the Lions and Cardinals give up less points a game than the Dolphins do. With a depleted 49ers backfield as McCaffrey, Jordan Mason and rookie Isaac Guerendo have missed time due to injuries, it will be up to Purdy to add to San Francisco’s scoreboard.
3. Brock Purdy must continue to connect with George Kittle, Jauan Jennings
The productivity when throwing to Kittle and Jennings is stronger than when throwing to Deebo and Pearsall. Purdy has more scores to the first pairing than he does to the second.
Purdy has thrown to Kittle 74 times and completed 60 of those throws. That’s a team-high 81-percent completion rate to the 49ers’ starting tight end. Jennings has hauled in 59 of the 87 targets from Purdy for nearly 68 percent of the throws to the wideout.
Like the 49ers’ starting quarterback, Deebo may also be auditioning to keep his job in San Francisco or be trying to catch the attention of another team. He has caught 43 of the 71 throws from Purdy and only snagged one touchdown reception.
In regard to Pearsall, the rookie receiver has not had much action in his eight games on the field. The former Florida Gator has only 13 receptions on 24 targets and one score as well.
Both Jennings and Kittle have recorded more than 800 receiving yards each, while Deebo and Pearsall have barely 700 combined yards. Kittle and Jennings also each have accounted for 40 first downs, whereas Deebo and Pearsall just 41 between the two of them.
In order for Purdy to have the best chance to succeed, win and extend his time with the Niners past this season, his best bet may be to throw the ball downfield to Jennings and Kittle more than anyone else.
