San Francisco 49ers’ Pressure-Free Finish Critical For Evaluating Brock Purdy

The San Francisco 49ers are in a position many teams will envy. Crowned NFC West champions and secured of at least one home playoff game this season, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain in their final three games of the regular season, giving rookie quarterback Brock Purdy the chance to develop more critical experience in a relatively pressure-free environment.

Purdy’s extremely impressive performances since stepping in for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo have ensured the 49er offense has experienced little drop-off despite starting a seventh-rounder who was final pick in the draft under center.

After replacing Garoppolo against the Miami Dolphins and helping the 49ers to victory in Week 13, Purdy has continued to show poise, decisiveness, accuracy and some playmaking ability across wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks.

His composure on the road in Seattle in a game to clinch the division was especially worthy of praise but, while what Purdy has produced to this point has been exemplary, the sample size remains small enough that many will need to see more from Purdy to be convinced he can lead the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

Now he will get the chance to increase his sample size significantly while knowing there is no jeopardy involved for the 49ers, who are locked in to at least the third seed in the NFC and could yet catch the Minnesota Vikings for the second seed. Even with the injury to Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts, it looks unlikely the Niners would be able to successfully reel in the Eagles for the top seed in the conference.

As such, Purdy can go into Saturday’s home game with the Washington Commanders — whose defense is the best he will face in the regular season — and the meetings with the Las Vegas Raiders and Arizona Cardinals knowing he can be fearless throwing the ball and that the repercussions for any mistakes he makes will be minimal.

Purdy will obviously not want to make many mistakes and will have designs on putting the 49ers in the best position possible to take the second seed and potentially have two home playoff games, and the freedom the 49ers’ playoff security gives him should play into the hands of a quarterback who has proven more than willing to take shots downfield and rip the ball into tight windows in his near-three games with the Niners.

The fearlessness he demonstrated has, along with the benefits that come with playing in a Kyle Shanahan offense, allowed Purdy to perform at a level that has him ranked eighth among all quarterbacks with at least 100 plays this season in Expected Points Added per play, according to rbsdm.com.

Playing the final three games without the threat of losing any playoff positioning will give the 49ers a clearer idea of whether that kind of production is sustainable and offer Shanahan more of an insight as to how he should attack the challenge of winning in the playoffs with Purdy at quarterback.

There is still something riding on the last three weeks of the regular season for the 49ers with their chance to improve playoff positioning but, unlike in 2021, they are not fighting for their postseason lives.

The pressure is off, but how Purdy performs without the added burden of competing to keep a season alive on his shoulders may determine how much faith the 49ers have in their unexpected starting quarterback to deliver when the spotlight is at its brightest in the playoffs and if they believe he can be the long-term answer at the game’s most important position.