San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy started the 16th game of his career on Thanksgiving night against the Seattle Seahawks. It was yet another dominant performance by him and the 49ers’ offense, as they defeated their NFC West rivals, 31-13.
The victory was the third in a row for San Francisco, who has gotten their season back on track after a rough three-game stretch in the middle. That three-game losing streak are the only games the team has lost in the regular season with Purdy under center.
Despite the team’s success, there are some people who are questioning whether Purdy can be the starting quarterback for a Super Bowl-contending team. It is a question that 49ers’ head coach Kyle Shanahan is tired of having to answer.
“The words, ‘elite,’ and ‘Super Bowl quarterback,’ I mean, this is the NFL,” Kyle Shanahan said in his postgame press conference. “You’ve got to have a really good football team to even have a chance to get there. And when you have a really good football team, you better have a really good quarterback. And when you do that, you still better have luck with injuries, you still gotta play good defense, you gotta do everything.
“There have also been a lot of great quarterbacks who haven’t won Super Bowls, and the ones who do, don’t win them on their own. They’ve got to be on a really good team, and they’ve got to have good defenses and there’s so many things that go into it, I always kind of hate the conversation.” (H/T Heavy)
Some credit should be given to Shanahan for still providing a thoughtful, in-depth answer to a question he admittedly hates. He makes a lot of good points, as there is a lot more than quarterback performance that goes into a team winning a Super Bowl, which is why some all-time greats don’t have a ring.
The 49ers have been able to build up such a strong roster in part because of Purdy’s presence on the roster. As the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, he is taking up less than one percent of the team’s salary cap. That has put John Lynch in a position to make blockbuster acquisitions, trading for running back Christian McCaffrey and defensive end Chase Young ahead of the last two deadlines and signing defensive tackle Javon Hargrave.
The 49ers are loaded with All-Pros on both sides of the ball. As long as they can remain healthy, they have proven capable of not only consistently winning but dominating opponents on a weekly basis. Purdy has had a major hand in that, as he is playing at an MVP level this season.
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