49ers’ loss in Miami continues the longest season of Brock Purdy’s life
Brock Purdy met his childhood hero Sunday when Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino made his way over during pregame warmups in Miami to say hello.
“It was quick. We were starting to warm up and he walked over and said ‘I want to meet you; good luck and tell your dad I said hi,'” Purdy said. “That was really neat. It was cool of him to do that.”
But instead of having a day to remember, Purdy took another body blow in the longest season of his life.
Purdy had completed a 17-yard pass to Jauan Jennings to the 49ers’ 47-yard line just before the two-minute warning with the 49ers trailing 22-17. They had all their timeouts, George Kittle looked like George Kittle and Deebo Samuel was breaking tackles and fighting for yards like the Deebo Samuel of old.
It was first-and-10. Plenty of time for Purdy to prove he can lead a team to victory in the fourth quarter, which is one of the few things he hasn’t accomplished in his third season. Purdy, operating out of the shotgun, wanted to throw to Jennings over the middle.
Instead, 38-year-old Calais Campbell crashed the potential victory party, with Purdy’s off-balance throw fluttering directly to Kader Kahou for an interception.
Three plays later, De’Von Achane raced 50-yard for a Dolphins touchdown and the 49ers, on a day when they were eliminated from playoff contention before kickoff, had fallen to 6-9 in a 29-17 loss.
This season, Purdy won’t go to the playoffs for a third time. Won’t play in the NFC Championship Game for the third time. Won’t go to the Super Bowl for a second time.
And like Marino, who played in only one Super Bowl following the 1984 season and lost to the 49ers 38-16, he won’t win a Super Bowl either. Not this year, anyway. Maybe not ever. There are no guarantees in the NFL.
“I was trying to lay it over the defender and I just got hit and couldn’t throw the ball that I really wanted to,” Purdy said. “I left it short and the guy got it.”
A week after struggling to throw the ball in the rain, Purdy looked a lot like his 2022-23 self until the interception. He was 26-of-40 for 313 yards and had touchdown passes of 16 yards to Samuel and 2 yards to Eric Saubert. His 25 yards in scrambles was good enough to lead the 49ers in rushing on a day where they were down to their fourth-string tailback in Patrick Taylor Jr.
Instead, the Purdy debate has been reignited. He’s under contract for a little more than $1 million in 2025, but no one expects him to play for that. His opposite number Sunday, Miami’s Tua Tagovaiola, signed a four-year extension worth $53.1 million and it wasn’t completely clear who was the best quarterback on the field.
It’s worth remembering Purdy doesn’t turn 25 for five more days. He’s been tantalizingly close to the top of the mountain, felled by a serious elbow injury in the NFC Championship Game two seasons ago and losing in overtime to Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LVIII last Feb. 11.
He’s won four playoff games. Been a central figure and a point man on offense that lifted his teammates even as his teammates lifted him. And now this. The quarterback of a 6-9 team, something that never happened to Steve Young or Joe Montana for football’s most quarterback-centric team.
“It hasn’t been clean football across the board,” Purdy said. “I just feel like we’re hurting ourselves offensively, and when the defense gets a stop, we’ve got to go and capitalize. Last year we did that really well — the last couple of years — and we played team football for four quarters and felt like we were pretty dominant. This year has just been hit or miss.”
Purdy stands guilty of being the quarterback of a team that has lost five of his last six games — even though he missed one in Green Bay with shoulder soreness. He probably got too much of the credit when the 49ers were winning, and now he’s getting too much of the blame, because that’s how it works with the most difficult position in professional sports.
After all, it wasn’t on Purdy that the 49ers committed 11 penalties for 90 yards, many of them of the maddening pre-snap variety.
It wasn’t Purdy’s fault that Ricky Pearsall twice lined up incorrectly for illegal formation calls. It wasn’t Purdy’s fault that left tackle Jaylon Moore departed in the third quarter with a quad injury and left guard Aaron Banks was done a short time later with a potential season-ending MCL injury. It wasn’t Purdy’s fault the 49ers had three defensive personal fouls allowing Miami to extend drives when the game was being decided. Or that Jake Moody missed another makeable field goal attempt from 41 yards.
Purdy has rejected using injuries as an alibi all season.
“It doesn’t matter who’s out there,” Purdy said. “We have what it takes to move the chains and win and score points. That’s my mindset. That’s why I’m hard on myself. That’s the NFL, man. I know that I’m capable of pulling through and winning these kinds of games, regardless of who’s out there.
“In the moment, I just have to be better, taking what the defense gives me and building guys up as we go. I’m learning a lot. It hurts going through it, but I still have all the faith in the world of what we can do moving forward. We’ve still got two games left to showcase ourselves and who we are.”
Unfortunately for the 49ers, their final won-loss record will say they were the most disappointing team in franchise history based on the expectation of being a Super Bowl contender.
It’s something no quarterback wants on his resume, but there are no indications Shanahan has soured on Purdy the way he did with Jimmy Garoppolo. And that’s the only way Purdy doesn’t get a contract that puts him somewhere in the vicinity of Tagovaiola and others.
Purdy expressed appreciation for Kittle and Samuel as teammates and friends.
“They’ve been very good to me and big brothers to me,” Purdy said.
Now it’s time for Purdy to be the big brother. A new contract will solidify his status as the 49ers’ quarterback of the future. Then the pressure will be even more intense, and the debates over Purdy’s viability to deliver a championship will be trebled in volume.
That’s life in the NFL.