By Brian Murphy
Hoping not to put a Jock Blog Jinx (JBJ) on the whole thing, how about a JB dedicated to this theme:
Ayyyy! Welcome back, Brock Purdy!
How’s tricks?
Of course, I know how life has been for Brock the past few months. I was speaking colloquially. The Jock Blog is a casual hang.
At any rate, God willing and the creeks don’t rise, ol’ No. 13 will be back on Sunday in Arizona to make only his third start of this star-crossed season.
Purdy has made two starts in the first ten weeks. That’s the bad news.
The 49ers are 6-4 and squarely in the playoff hunt. That’s the good news.
So! We have ourselves a situation. Purdy is coming back to take over a team that his buddy Mac Jones has quarterbacked quite capably, thank you. Jones went 5-3 in eight starts, is second in the NFL in yards per game, seventh in the NFL in completion percentage and 10th in the NFL in QB rating. The 49ers throw for more yards per game (261.4) than any team in the league. By any offensive measure, the Mac Jones Era is a smash success.
No pressure, Brock. Just don’t screw it up now.
That’s where we’re at this week. The return of everyone’s favorite underdog — Mr. Irrelevant, the freaking 262nd pick in the 2022 NFL draft who took the 49ers to the NFC Championship *as a rookie*, took the 49ers to the Super Bowl and had the *lead in overtime* the very next year, is 4-2 in the playoffs, is only 25 years old and signed to be your franchise quarterback for the next decade — is being met with slight ambivalence.
Some world we live in. What have you done for me lately?
Count the Jock Blog as a place that welcomes back Brock Purdy with open arms — even if he may not be at 100 percent because of that darn toe. Brock needs a hug about now, even if he got a $40 million signing bonus as a pretty good hug this spring.
Purdy at his best combines that Iowa State aw-shucks personality with the primal scream from his id after a touchdown pass to George Kittle to create a persona that 49ers fans came to love. But a 6-11 season last year and this year’s injuries brought gray clouds to the sky.
There are skeptics. Last week, a trio of NFL voices — Tom Brady, Richard Sherman and ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky — each indicated the 49ers would be better off keeping Mac Jones as QB1, using the age-old phrase “riding the hot hand”. It’s not a terrible argument. Brady pointed out that his seven-time Super Bowl champ career started because Bill Belichick eschewed starter Drew Bledsoe and went with the “hot hand” in Brady. And we’ve seen it in San Francisco. Jim Harbaugh pushed starter Alex Smith aside for the “hot hand” in Colin Kaepernick.
But we all can see that Purdy is more mobile than Jones. And perhaps more importantly, the 49ers are Purdy’s team. He’s the one who won over the locker room with one of the most improbable stories in NFL history. He was everyone’s darling, made more so when he gifted his entire offensive line a fleet of Toyotas.
This isn’t entirely new. Backup QBs have won over fans before in 49ers history. When KNBR’s favorite Wednesday voice, Steve Young, was banged up at various points in the 1995 and 1996 season, Elvis Grbac stepped in and went 6-3. In 1991, Steve Bono slid in for the injured Joe Montana and Young and went 5-1. Even Matt Cavanaugh and Jeff Kemp — ask your parents — rode in on white horses to go 5-2-1 for Montana in the 1980s.
So we understand and enjoy the Mac Jones phenomenon. And Jones sure is a valuable weapon to have on the roster.
But it’s time to welcome Brock Purdy back.
