On Thursday, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan joined Bay Area radio station KNBR. After discussing the Brandon Aiyuk situation, the conversation shifted to his third-year quarterback, Brock Purdy.
In his short time in the NFL, Purdy has made a strong impression. Last season, after recovering from major surgery on his throwing arm, he set a single-season franchise record with 4,280 passing yards.
Having observed all of Purdy’s throws during training camp, Shanahan is in a better position than casual observers to assess the quarterback’s offseason progress. Shanahan offered his insights when asked what fans should look for to notice any improvement.
“I think that’s been the cool thing about Brock’s career in a year-and-a-half, that even after his first year, a lot of people outside of here, they would have so much questions about him,” Shanahan told Tom Tolbert and Kerry Crowley. “Him taking over for a talented team, going undefeated in the games he played in until the Philly game that he got hurt in. But when you watch those seven games, you saw him make plays scrambling. You saw him make some plays down the field. You saw him very accurate. He protected the ball, had a very good touchdown/interception ratio.
“So, you kind of saw all the areas that you need as a quarterback, and then the whole thing got about him getting healthy. And he got into Week 1 healthy, and I think you saw that stuff this year, people expecting him to be good, or now the secret was out, and him still performing at a high level, where people are talking about him as a possible MVP, having a tough game where he’s got four picks on Christmas … versus Baltimore.
“And then coming back, and rebounding from that, and [doing] a hell of a job from there on out, being in a big game, winning two playoff games, playing in the Super Bowl. There’s so many things that you’ve seen Brock do that I don’t think there’s an area where anyone’s like, ‘He hasn’t thrown the deep ball well. Oh, he hasn’t been able to perform after a bad game. He hasn’t made plays scrambling.’ He’s kind of done all that in a year-and-a-half.”
Shanahan believes that for Purdy to continue improving, he needs to maintain a high level of play and do so more consistently, making big plays more automatically and capitalizing on every opportunity the defense gives him.
“He has done that stuff, but nobody’s perfect,” Shanahan continued. “That’s why we’re always trying to train him to be perfect, and that’s why he probably gets annoyed with us because we’re not going to stop until he is. But that’s kind of what’s cool and [why it’s] fun to coach Brock because he’s pretty much that way with himself.”
You can listen to the entire conversation with Shanahan below.
