QB Brock Purdy Press Conference

QB Brock Purdy

Press Conference – December 14, 2023

San Francisco 49ers

Is there any pressure because it’s the first time you’re going home and playing as a 49ers starter?

“Yeah, I’m excited to sort of just have, I guess my family, my friends, just people in my life growing up to just be there. So, should be fun.”

How do you balance that? You’ve done such a great job with everything that’s been thrusted upon you, but it’s a little bit different when you’re playing in front of family and friends. You still want to impress, I would imagine?

“Yeah, most definitely. But I feel like it’s sort of been like that already. Every game I feel like there’s family and friends that either come to games or tuned in watching on TV and stuff. Nothing changes. Once we line up, it’s 11-on-11 football and I’ve got to do my assignments and play quarterback and that’s about it.”

Do you have a ballpark estimate of how many people you’ll have at the game?

“I’m not really sure the whole number, but I’m only doing tickets just for my family. Just because there’s a lot of people. But I know that there’s a lot of people that have bought tickets and they’ll be there supporting, so very thankful for that.”

Can you walk us through your thought process on RB Christian McCaffrey’s long run? What were you looking for as you sprint down there?

“Yeah, I saw him sort of just make his cut early on and I only saw a couple guys downfield and [WR Brandon Aiyuk] B.A. running. So I was like ‘all right, I’m going to just try to get down there and if Christian ends up cutting back, I want to hopefully be able to get in front of a guy or make a block for him.’ So Christian started pulling away and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to get there.’ Then he made his cut back and I was like, ‘dang it, I should have done it. I should’ve just kept going.’ So that was my mindset. I saw B.A. doing his thing, blocking for him and if he had made any kind of cutback, I just wanted to be there for him, so.”

You really want to sign the yellow hard hat. Is that what you’re saying?

“Yeah, a hundred percent. I want to be a part of that club.”

Before the game, former 49ers WR Jerry Rice came by and kind of dapped you up a little bit and had some words. Can you share what Jerry said to you? How cool is that the greatest receiver of all time touching base with you before the game?

“Yeah, it was cool. I sort of just got a pat on the back and I looked over and it was Jerry and just dapped him up and he just said, ‘ball out today.’ Sort of just kept it simple. But the fact that he did that and came over as I was warming up, that was pretty cool. Obviously, he’s an idol to many and a legend here as a 49er. To be able to play in the same organization as him is really special, so that was cool.”

Do you talk much with former 49ers QB Joe Montana or former 49ers QB Steve Young?

“When they’ve come to games, I’ve talked to them in person a little bit. But not in terms of calling or anything.”

Head coach Kyle Shanahan was talking yesterday about how a lot of times the communication with players, he will FaceTime them or they’ll usually text back with him. How do you usually deal with Kyle? How has that relationship kind of spawned over the last year and where you guys have meshed so well now?

“Yeah, he’ll just shoot me a text every once in a while if he wants me to come in and meet. We like meeting more in person than anything. After a game or something on my drive home, he’ll usually just shoot me a call and go over some things, how we’re thinking, our initial thoughts and stuff. He does a good job with just all the guys in general in terms of keeping in touch and making sure everyone’s good, but where we’re at and how we can be better. So he does a great job with that. But yeah, over the last year it definitely obviously has. We’ve talked a lot more and stuff. We have to be on the same page. We’re trying to obviously accomplish the same goals and stuff, so it’s been cool to sort of see our relationship evolve over the last year and stuff.”

If you have a question about the game plan in the middle of the night that comes to your mind, will you text quarterbacks coach Brian Griese instead or will you go right to Kyle?

“I’ll probably wait until the morning. I’m trying to get my sleep and I know they are too. But if something ever did come to mind, they wouldn’t mind if I shot them a text at all. So either one of them would be ready to answer.”

Was the last time you were in the Cardinals Stadium when you got your Gatorade Player of the Year Award or have you been there since?

“I played in the Fiesta Bowl in 2020 against Oregon there, in that stadium. That was the last time I was there.”

After the game you mentioned that Seattle Seahawks S Jamal Adams was flatfooted and it was something that you noticed. Do you remember in your quarterback career when you started noticing different tells of players and how you could take advantage of them?

“I mean, you could say film study and all that kind of stuff which is true to an extent. For me in that play, it wasn’t necessarily just Jamal, it was like whoever’s playing that safety position, with our play call and where we were at in the game. When we had called that play, the first thing was to identify what the safety structure looked like, and then Jamal happened to be playing safety there and just looking at him with a couple steps that I was taking in my drop, I saw that he was flatfooted and that kind of thing. But I mean, there are some things that you can see on film with guys and they show some tells and whatnot. For me, at the end of the day, I still have to catch the ball, drop back and react, and obviously anticipate things, which is great and which you can learn from film study. But for me, in the moment, being able to see the safety structure post snap, the rotation, things like that, and then react and hit guys that are open. So I like to sort of somewhat keep it simple. But in that play did I watch film a million times on Jamal Adams and say, ‘I’m going to get this?’ To be honest, no.”

Has your processing got slower or felt slower so you feel like you can make or see more before you actually throw the ball?

“I mean, a little bit, yeah. Just playing within this offense and in this system with the guys up front blocking and then trusting and the guys running the concepts that we’ve run over games and since camp and stuff. All that has helped me and it has sort of has helped me just process things, help slow things down a little bit. But the game is still fast and it’s not like I’ve mastered it at all. I feel like it’ll always be a challenge every game, every snap, but I’ve gotten more familiar with what we’re trying to do, so it has helped.”

Do you consider yourself a game manager?

“I don’t know. I don’t want to comment on that. Like I said, I’m playing quarterback, trying to win games and we’ll see at the end of all of it.”

Your completion rate on deep passes is the highest that I’ve found on record. Is this the most comfortable you’ve been throwing the deep ball, not just in your NFL career, but going back to college and high school?

“Yeah, I’d say so. I forgot who I was talking to earlier this week, just in terms of, I feel like I’ve always been efficient with the quick game, the intermediate game, all that kind of stuff. But when it comes to pushing the ball down field, sort of just understanding what we’re trying to do as an offense and once we get those kinds of opportunities, being aggressive and letting it rip. I feel like right now, probably, out of all the years I’ve been playing football, this has probably been the best in terms of pushing the ball downfield and being efficient in that area, not just throwing it up in hopes for someone to grab it, but being efficient when I take my shots. I feel like it is probably the best that I’ve been throwing the ball right now.”

Just looking back at the course of this season, I remember Week 2 against the Rams you missed a couple. Since then, it’s gotten better and better. Was there some kind of just physical knocking off of the rust that’s happened over the course of this year as it relates specifically to deep passes?

“I mean, maybe. Obviously I was hard on myself after that Rams game, missing those couple deep shots. Then just being real with myself at practice and stuff and working on just mechanics, and little things, and timing with the receivers, and being on the same page with them. I think all those little things have helped and they’ve paid off, but I feel like there’s still some areas where I can get better at with it and that’s that. But yeah, I feel good with where I’m at right now.”

Are the left-handed drop backs by design? Do you feel comfortable with that dropping back as a lefty, flipping your hips, taking a look at the field? What would be the purpose of that?

“Yeah, it’s just another way for us to move the pocket, sort of just get some movement within our system, our play calls. In a sense it’s another way of play action, but to be able to roll left and flip our hips and still get the ball where it needs to, wherever at on the field. Something we’ve been working on since camp. I feel like it’s somewhat of a just a new thing teams are doing nowadays, the shotgun rolling left a little bit and then flipping the hips and then being able to deliver. I have never done anything like that growing up or college or high school or anything. But after last year of installing those kinds of plays I like it a lot. I like how we do it. So yeah, I’m down for it.”

Kyle said that when he was a coordinator he’s had a couple of quarterbacks where he would go over a chunk of 10 plays and eight of the were right and two of them were wrong, and he would spend all of his time going over the two that were wrong. Then the quarterback would go, ‘hey, what about these other eight? How come you did those? Let’s fix the ones that are wrong.’ Does that kind of teaching resonate with you?

“Yeah, a hundred percent. I feel like we need it. I love that kind of coaching, honestly. At the end of the day you have a standard for yourself. You want to be consistent as best as possible. As a quarterback in the NFL, like there’s little room to mess up. So, I think if you’re in the NFL and you’re a quarterback, you’ve got to be somewhat of a perfectionist. You want those two plays back. You want to learn from them and grow from them. If they’re just telling you how great you are and stuff there’s going to be a time throughout the season at some point where you’ll probably get exposed with maybe those little things like that. So Kyle does a great job, all of the years of coaching and experience that he has of pointing those things out and harping on them, not just to down you out or anything, but to be real and help you. We’re all trying to win and that’s what it takes. So he does a good job with that.”

On the radio you thought your elbow in part I think was due to all the maintenance you did and all the exercises you did, it may actually lead you to be stronger and you wanted to continue to do those exercises because of that. Was that discussed pre-surgery, like this could happen, your elbow could be stronger, or was that even not just a topic? Was it just like, let’s get it back to where it was?

“A little bit of both. I think the main emphasis was let’s get back to normal first. Let’s get cleared. Let’s get healthy. Let’s compete again. Then if everything goes well, like obviously stick to the plan of whatever I was doing for my arm to get it stronger. I feel like regardless of getting hurt or not, that’s something that as a professional athlete, you always want to find the little things to help you get better. If we’re being real, like my rookie year coming out of college, I feel like there’s so many areas I could have got better, like physically as a thrower. So, this whole last year I’ve still been trying to mold into the quarterback that I want to be, the thrower I want to be. Obviously I want to continue to do the things that I’ve learned throughout rehab and stuff to become who I want to be. But, I think at the time it was more about getting healthy and getting back for game one more than anything.”

When did you have a conversation with Minnesota Vikings QB Nick Mullens?

“I want to say somewhat after the season. I was figuring out surgery, who I was going to go to in terms of a surgeon and sort of just what the whole process looked like. It’s not that I was freaking out or anything, but I just wanted to talk to a guy who had been through it. So, a bunch of the guys here had recommended Nick. They said he is a great guy, so I shot him a text and then he called me right away and he was awesome. Just told me what he went through, what he felt right after, how long it sort of took until he got back to normal, and sort of what to expect. So, he was awesome. I’ll always remember that conversation. Honestly, the things that I’ve been through so far have been to a T of what he said. So it’s great advice from him.”