SANTA CLARA — As Brock Purdy humbly sits atop the NFL’s passing leaders, he reflected back to July, when he began “ripping” 50-yard passes with accuracy with his surgically repaired arm. A couple of weeks later, he promptly opened training camp with two deep overthrows, all in search of consistency and arm strength.
“It’s been a work in progress back to camp,” Purdy said Tuesday. “Once the season hit, I was able to do it.”
Purdy’s long ball is a long-sought element the 49ers (7-3) are using to their highlight-reel benefit as they go visit the Seattle Seahawks (6-2) on Thanksgiving night.
When Purdy made his first career road start there last December, his arm was healthy but a broken rib almost kept him out of the lineup, and it still hindered what he could throw in that 21-13, division-clinching win.
“Anything that just made me really coil up and absolutely rip it,” Purdy recalled of his play-call limitations. “The quick game and intermediate stuff, I was able to do. But to launch the ball or roll left and throw on the run, the way I positioned my body and how it tweaked on my rib, that’s something we accounted for.”
A new and improved Purdy is ready for his Seattle encore.
Sunday saw him air out the NFL’s longest completion this season, a 76-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline to Brandon Aiyuk, on a pass soaring 45 yards in the air. A week earlier, Purdy stepped up in a collapsing pocket and launched a 66-yard scoring strike — “a grenade out of a bunker,” coach Kyle Shanahan said — to George Kittle down the right sideline in Jacksonville.
“If the looks are there, he takes it,” Shanahan said. “The more areas of the field you hit, the more areas they have to defend. We try to throw where they’re not, and Brock is doing a good job with that.”
Purdy’s NFL-leading average of 9.7 yards per attempt is ahead of the franchise-best, single-season marks of John Brodie (9.14 YPA, 1961), Joe Montana (9.12 YPA, 1989) and Steve Young (9.02 YPA, 1991). Purdy has averaged 12.3 yards per attempt over the past two wins (40-of-51, 629 yards, six touchdowns, no interceptions).
“That’s something we worked on since camp,” wide receiver Deebo Samuel said. “It’s good that we’re taking shots down the field, so it’s not one football across the middle all the time, and it gives defenses other things to think about. When you’re out there against all the guys we have on offense, you have to defend all the field.”
That said, the 49ers’ offensive approach Thursday (and every game) still revolves more so around NFL-leading rusher Christian McCaffrey and a run game that demolished the Seahawks in three victories last season. Still, McCaffrey’s 2023 dominance could be anticipated; Purdy’s passing prowess was no sure thing.
“I don’t think anybody’s making more big plays down the field than Brock Purdy,” general manager John Lynch said on KNBR 680-AM. “He’s throwing the ball down the field, chunk yardage. There’s a lot of weapons there. He’s going to take it to the right place.”
Purdy first had to get his ulnar collateral ligament repaired after last season’s NFC Championship Game injury in that 31-7 debacle in Philadelphia. On March 10, an internal-brace procedure in Texas put Purdy on the fast track to recovery. On May 29, he began a throwing program. On July 25, he was cleared for the start of training camp. A month later, Purdy’s reps were cut in half in a “de-loading” plan to freshen him up for the season.
“I remember stages in the offseason: ‘OK, he’s throwing. Now it looks like his arm got a little stronger.’ I do believe from Game 1 until now, Brock’s arm has continually gotten stronger,” Lynch said. “Maybe the bye week allowed it to rest a little and he came back with a little extra juice.”
Purdy indeed credited the bye week for allowing him to “feel fresh again,” but he won’t go so far as to say his UCL surgery made him stronger, or gave him what George Kittle jokingly referred to last game as “a bionic arm.”
“I do feel my pre- and post-(game) routine of throwing has allowed my arm to get stronger, just in general,” Purdy said. “After surgery, I recovered. But my habits of what I’d done in the NFL compared to college, it’s night and day. It has helped my arm get stronger.”
“My man’s been lifting a little weights,” Samuel said with a laugh. “He’s getting a little stronger and it’s looking pretty good coming off his arm.”
Purdy leads the NFL in passer rating (115.1), completion percentage (70.2), touchdown percentage (6.5) and yards-per-attempt (9.7).
Brock Purdy finished 7 of 10 for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns on passes over 10 air yards against the Buccaneers.
Purdy currently leads the NFL in EPA per dropback on passes over 10 air yards this season (+0.87).#TBvsSF | #FTTB pic.twitter.com/o9egKw5puv
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 20, 2023
Shanahan said Purdy’s arm is “definitely stronger than what we thought it was when we drafted him. But we saw that the first day out at rookie mini-camp.” Purdy’s processing and decision-making skills are why Shanahan trusts him to sling the ball short, deep, over the middle and into anticipatory open windows.
Purdy’s study habits, indeed, are an overlooked aspect as to why the offense is opening up, stronger arm or not.
“He has a good feel for how I’m about to run my route on certain looks and where I might end up,” Aiyuk said. “He has a good feel on all his receivers, and that helps his accuracy even more.”
“In camp, I’d study how (Aiyuk) runs in and out of breaks. It’s different from Deebo, different from George,” Purdy said. “BA’s got length, he’s got range. I know where to throw the ball and where he shouldn’t be. Throwing with anticipation is huge for me and so he understands that. When I let the ball go, he gets where he needs to be and we made it happen.”
BROWN’S ROOKIE APPROACH
Safety Ji’Ayir Brown is confident he’s ready to enter the 49ers’ starting lineup in place of Talanoa Hufanga, and linebacker Fred Warner agrees.
“People from the outside looking in are probably thinking, “You’ve got to grab him, you’ve got to look him in the eye, and say, ‘Don’t mess this up!’ But he obviously came in and did his thing last week,” Warner said of Brown, who had three pass breakups and an interception in relief Sunday. “He’s fully capable of coming in and playing the position at a high level and he’ll fit in right with what our game plan is going to be.”
Brown liked how poised he was defending passes but felt he could improve his vision on plays. “Just stay prepared and execute my job,” Brown said of his strategy this week.
Hufanga went on season-ending Injured Reserve, having torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee Sunday. “We talked after the game and he told me how great of a job I was doing,” Brown said. “I reached back out to him to try to keep his head high.”
Hufanga is their first starter this season to go on IR, where they currently have defensive end Drake Jackson (knee), cornerback Sam Womack (knee), defensive end Robert Beal Jr. (hamstring), wide receiver Danny Gray (shoulder) and tight end Cameron Latu (knee).
GUARD SHACK
Left guard Aaron Banks (toe) was to practice Tuesday night for the first time since a two-game hiatus, but right guard Spencer Burford is not because of a knee injury which might sideline him Thursday. For help, the 49ers signed guard Ben Bartch off the Jaguars practice squad, where he landed after Jacksonville traded for Ezra Cleveland. Bartch (6-6, 315) was a 2020 fourth-round pick out of St. Johns, and he’s made 20 starts in 41 games.
All other 49ers were slated to practice, with limited roles set for defensive tackle Javon Hargrave (thumb), wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud (rib) and cornerback Shemar Jean-Charles (shoulder).