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The 49ers had just wrapped up a walkthrough at the team facility the day before their 2022 preseason opener against the Packers. Brock Purdy, at that point, was a seventh-round, third-string rookie. He wasn’t even backing up Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo yet, with Garoppolo exiled to a side field as the team worked to trade him. It was actually Lance and Nate Sudfeld he was behind. As such, shots to show what he had came few and far between.
Yet, Purdy managed to figure out he was making an impression. He got confirmation of it walking back into the Niners’ building that August day, trailing first-team All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner and first-team All-Pro tackle Trent Williams.
“Man, I can’t wait to watch Purdy play tomorrow,”Warner said to Williams.
Neither knew the then 22-year-old was right behind them. Purdy simply overheard it—and won’t soon forget it.
“So I was getting some guys’ attention,” Purdy said Tuesday, leaning back on a leather couch in the bowels of Levi’s Stadium. “Like, .”
It sure wasn’t the last time Purdy would do something right for the Niners in 2022. And the revelation that Warner happened upon through a couple of weeks of camp was just the beginning. By then, Purdy had already gone from the bubble to a near-sure bet to make the roster—he’d wind up beating out Sudfeld for that third spot—and was on his way, as we know now, to so much more. Meanwhile, Warner’s belief would become everyone’s belief.
A year later the Niners have a stacked roster, the NFL’s best in the opinion of many rival talent evaluators, and, implicitly, they’ve shown what they think of Purdy by handing him the keys to it without looking back.
Outside this building, there are a of questions about whether San Francisco has done enough to service the rest of a loaded team with the best option at the most important position on the field. Inside it, that doubt really doesn’t exist. In fact, if you ask those who work in Santa Clara, the idea that Purdy could be Kyle Shanahan’s guy for the next decade isn’t out of the question—which says plenty about where they stand.
“That’s a big statement, especially when you say a decade,” Shanahan said, from behind his desk Tuesday. “The games Brock played in, he played at as high a level as you could ask for, as consistent a level as you can ask for. Hell yeah, you can win with that and be very happy with that. That was [seven full] games, there’s a lot that goes into it, and we’ll see how it goes. I mean, we played good enough in those games to say we’re going with him this year.
“And to go with a guy for one year means you better believe that stuff.”
Especially when it’s year in San Francisco, with the team squarely in a championship window. So whether America believes in Purdy or not doesn’t matter. Because the Niners do.
