49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has emerged as an MVP candidate after finally finding stability at a position the team has struggled to figure out. He also continues to be labeled by some as a “game manager.”
The questions were reinforced this week by comments from former NFL quarterback and 2015 league MVP Cam Newton. I applied that label to Purdy. Other current starters include Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, Lions quarterback Jared Goff and Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
On Thursday, Purdy was asked during his midweek press conference whether he considered himself a game manager.
“I don’t know,” Purdy said. “I don’t want to comment on that. Like I said, I’m playing quarterback and trying to win games, so we’ll see how it all ends.”
The term “game manager” undermines the quarterback’s involvement in the team’s success. This suggests that he is not doing anything special to contribute to this effort. That the rest of the team has his back, not the other way around. That the quarterback’s goal is simply not to mess things up.
It’s an inaccurate label to apply to any of the quarterbacks Newton mentioned. A better term to describe a player like Purdy is “system quarterback.” That’s not an insult. 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has devised a system that, when executed properly, can lead to wins. And Purdy commands it as well as, if not better than, any quarterback the 49ers have had on the roster since Shanahan took over as head coach in early 2017.
Shanahan designs run plays that are difficult to stop. He then uses his success in the running game to shred a defense that is cornered in the passing game. They have some high-end weapons like running back Christian McCaffrey and receiver Deebo Samuel, both of whom can take short passes and RAC them for first downs or touchdowns.
Purdy is making the system work, just as other great quarterbacks have done in the past. Joe Montana? system quarterback. He carried out the attack as designed and directed by the attack’s mastermind, Bill Walsh. When quarterbacks execute a good system as intended, they gain passing yards, win, and ultimately win championships.
Will Purdy ever have to make big throws in big spots? Jimmy Garoppolo got that chance in Super Bowl LIV after the Chiefs came back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to take the lead. But Garoppolo missed a chance to score a touchdown set by Emmanuel Sanders.
The truth for the 49ers is that if key players stay healthy, they may never need big throws in big spots from Purdy. Purdy just needs to keep doing what he’s doing because the 49ers are so much better than other teams right now. The fact that he makes it look easy doesn’t mean it’s easy. If that were the case, the 49ers would have won a Super Bowl or two under Shanahan by now.
As for Newton, yeah, I can understand him feeling a little bitter about being ignored. While there have been well over 50 different starting QBs over the past year, with the Browns and Vikings each using four as of this weekend, Newton has never gotten a call. There wasn’t.
So, no, Purdy is not a game manager. Not Tua, not Goff, not Prescott. (Frankly, Goff is the closest of the quartet to that word.) But Purdy teeth A systems quarterback, he executes a complex and effective system to perfection. If it ends up achieving a goal the 49ers haven’t achieved in nearly 30 years, only one label will matter.
Super Bowl Champion.