Getty Image / Cooper Neill
The San Francisco 49ers have gone through some huge changes at quarterback this season.
They started the year by turning things over to Trey Lance as their starter. Since then both Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo has suffered major injuries.
Now they’ve turned to Brock Purdy and the rookie quarterback has been surprisingly effective. Since Garoppolo’s injury, Purdy has led the 49ers to a pair of wins while throwing for 395 yards and 4 touchdowns. He even outplayed Tom Brady this past weekend as the 49ers destroyed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While that has all been a pleasant surprise for the 49ers, who didn’t really know what to expect from the inexperienced quarterback as he took over in the midst of the stretch run of the playoff race.
What they’ve gotten has been very different from what the 49ers were used to at the position and that has been encapsulated by one unbelievable stat.
Brock Purdy threw a pair of touchdown passes on deep throws in the 2nd quarter of his first start for the San Francisco 49ers. Jimmy Garoppolo threw the same number of deep touchdown passes over the past 3 years.
#49ers QBs:
Jimmy Garoppolo – two deep TD passes in 3 years.
Brock Purdy – two deep TD passes in one quarter of his 1st NFL start (FS1) pic.twitter.com/RbKF98lvGB
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 14, 2022
That added dimension could be a big factor for the 49ers. They have plenty of weapons at their disposal, but they hadn’t really taken that next step as an offense with Garoppolo under center. That likely comes down to a lack of deep throws to really stretch the defense.
If Purdy can take advantage of Brandon Aiyuk’s ability to test defenses over the top and George Kittle making plays in the seam, it would open opportunities underneath for Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel (when he returns). That would make the 49ers very dangerous in the playoffs.
Maybe the 49ers’ QB3 is the one we really should’ve paying attention to all along.