The 49ers will be outsiders as the NFL season concludes Sunday with Super Bowl LIX. Meanwhile, quarterback Brock Purdy, who was on the precipice of a championship in overtime a year ago, awaits a contract extension after being paid at a bargain rate for three years.
When the 49ers concluded a 6-11 season, Brock Purdy said he wanted to avoid the drama of a protracted negotiation. General manager John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan met with the media the next day and were clear in their intentions to move forward with Purdy as the face of the franchise.
If only it were that easy.
Joel Corry, a former agent who covers NFL contracts and the salary cap for CBS Sports, is skeptical of a quick resolution.
“The 49ers always say the right thing about how important the guy is, how valuable he is to the team,” Corry said in a phone interview. “But Nick Bosa missed most of training camp before he became the highest-paid non-quarterback and that should have been the easiest one to do. Deebo Samuel asked for a trade. We had the Brandon Aiyuk saga last year. George Kittle’s deal took almost until the start of camp when he was clearly the most productive tight end in the league. I don’t expect anything to be different.”
Purdy is under contract in 2025 for $5.2 million, thanks to an escalator which boosted his salary from the $1 million range for making the Pro Bowl in 2023. If the 49ers push Purdy to play for that number, it means the two sides are far apart in negotiations.
To date, Purdy has been paid $2,885,346 according to Spotrac.com, a site that tracks professional sports contracts.
The 49ers were prohibited from increasing Purdy’s salary because of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement. He wasn’t eligible to negotiate an extension until after three seasons. So while Purdy was taking the 49ers to two NFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl before a dip in performance in 2024, quarterbacks with less impressive resumes are making anywhere from an average per year of $60 million (Dak Prescott at No. 1) to $46.1 million (Kyler Murray at No. 10).
None other than Joe Montana, citing everything that went wrong for the 49ers in 2024, advocated for Purdy on the Rich Eisen Show at Super Bowl LIX.
“You’ve got to pay him. I can show you four or five guys in the league making tons of money that haven’t produced anywhere near what he’s been able to do,” Montana said. “They just had one of those years where you can’t wait to get it behind you.”
Contract numbers can be deceiving when factoring in guaranteed money and contract voids, but it’s clear Purdy is due the biggest raise in NFL history. Yet it’s unclear how high the 49ers are willing to go and what represents the floor for Purdy’s negotiators, agent Kyle Strongin and Range Sports.
There won’t be much back and forth in the media, judging from the way the 49ers operate as well as Purdy’s understated tone.
“I want to get it done, if that’s an opportunity to get done quick, that would be great so we can get back for Phase 1 (of the offseason program) and get after it with the receivers and our team,” Purdy said on Jan. 6. “With that being said, everyone’s timing is a little different.”
Quarterbacks, more than any other position, are important in the offseason to bond with new players and assert their leadership with the unit. Purdy didn’t commit to participating without a new deal, a strategy that makes sense to Corry.
“They’ve got to preserve their options, see where things are going and make a game-time decision based on where they are with negotiations,” Corry said.
Since Purdy is still on his rookie deal, any fines imposed for missing mandatory portions of the offseason can be rescinded, as they were when Bosa signed.
There’s a wide gulf in terms of how industry experts view a contract for Purdy. Corry expects a “top-of-the-market” deal, and complicating matters could be a possible extension for Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen, which would be more jet fuel for the quarterback market.
Michael Ginnitti, the co-founder and editor of Spotrac and a careful observer of contracts in professional sports, doesn’t see Purdy being in Prescott territory.
“I just can’t envision them offering a top-of-the-market deal for a player that I’m not sure has much of a market anywhere else,” Ginnitti said in a direct message on the social media platform X.
Ginnitti forecasts a two-year, $70 million deal with $55 million guaranteed that he describes as “built within” a four-year, $140 million extension.
That’s not dramatically different than a four-year, $160 million deal signed by former New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones in 2023 after his rookie deal expired. The Giants benched Jones last season. Jones asked for his release, ended up on the Minnesota practice squad and is currently a free agent.
“This isn’t going to be an easy deal to do,” Corry said. “Anyone who thinks Brock Purdy is going to sign for Daniel Jones money, I want some of what they’re smoking.”
Regardless of the numbers, a contract can be structured in a way that mitigates its impact on the salary cap in 2025 with a minimum base salary and bonus money spread out over the life of the deal. The club is also reportedly in talks with Kittle and Fred Warner about contract extensions which would lower their cap numbers and put more money in their pocket.
The 49ers were 17-4 with Purdy as a starter as a rookie and in 2023 and 4-2 in the playoffs. He led the 49ers to come-from-behind wins over Green Bay and Detroit in 2023 and had the 49ers ahead of Kansas City in overtime before losing 25-22 last Feb. 11 in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
That was with a talented and mostly healthy supporting cast. Much of that vanished in 2024, with Purdy going 6-9 as a starter. He dropped off in all statistical categories, although showing more of a scrambling ability with 33 rushing first downs. Critics have cited late game failures as well as struggling in cold weather.
Purdy missed the last game of the season with an elbow injury after being injured in Week 17 against Detroit. It was diagnosed as a contusion with nerve irritation — unrelated to his elbow surgery after the 2022 season — and said he planned to take a few weeks off from throwing before getting back at it.
The impact of the numbers dip on negotiations remains to be seen.
“If you flip the years and we’re talking about losing the Super Bowl in overtime in a contract year, it’s a different story,” Corry said. “We’d be talking about Brock Purdy’s growth and it wouldn’t be an issue. But because everything around him collapsed and he didn’t play at the same level, it’s going to come up and that complicates matters.”
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Purdy’s agents will be stressing his client’s three-year body of work and see where he fits in the marketplace among quarterbacks such as Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence ($55 million APY), Green Bay’s Jordan Love ($55 million APY) and Miami’s Tua Tagovaiola ($53.1 million APY).
“Trevor Lawrence was the first pick of the draft, he’s been to the playoffs once,” Corry said. “Tua has never won a playoff game. He got paid. Jordan Love played half a good season and got paid.”
Purdy will also get paid. As for the years and length of the contract, we’ll probably know later rather than sooner.
