Brock Purdy is a realist, but he's also a competitor.
Purdy seemingly wasn't caught off guard when 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan informed the young quarterback last year that San Francisco was going to pursue Tom Brady if he wanted to keep playing. After all, this was the greatest signal-caller of all time the Niners brass was talking about.
But Purdy wasn't a totally unproven commodity at that juncture either. He led San Francisco to the 2023 NFC Championship Game, and had the Iowa State product not sustained a serious shoulder injury early against the Philadelphia Eagles, the 49ers might have ended up in Super Bowl LVII.
As such, Purdy balanced understanding with fierceness when Shanahan broke the Brady news to him.
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"I totally understood the fact Kyle and the team needed a quarterback for the next season,” Purdy told The Athletic's Tim Kawakami. "So when he said 'Tom Brady,' I was like, all right, that's cool for your sake as a head coach, and for a team, to bring in the best of all time.
"But a little bit of me was like, all right, I'd just proven that I beat this guy this past year and that I'm good enough to take our team to, at the time, it was the NFC Championship (Game). You know, I can obviously be the guy for this organization. ...But given the circumstances of me being hurt and having some uncertainty at quarterback, I understand why he was willing to have that as a thought."
Purdy's starting job was never threatened, as Brady continued to enjoy retirement. But any lingering doubters were silenced last season when the sophomore QB led San Francisco to the NFC's No. 1 playoff seed, a conference title and nearly a Lombardi Trophy, which was taken away by the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII.
Now, Purdy is among the players with the shortest odds to win NFL MVP this season. And Brady will have an opportunity to talk about him publicly as FOX's lead NFL color commentator.
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Featured image via New England Patriots
