After playing for three seasons with the San Francisco 49ers for less than a million dollars annually and leading the team to the National Conference title in 2023 with a great performance, Brock Purdy finally secured a contract that matches his level and will receive 265 million dollars for the next five years, with $181 million guaranteed.
Thanks to that, Purdy will now have an average annual salary of $53 million, which places him in the Top 10 of the highest-paid players in the NFL.
NFL Network was the first to report on Purdy’s contract.
From “irrelevant” to NFL star
In the 2022 Draft, Brock Purdy, who came from Iowa State, was selected by the San Francisco team with the final pick, the 262nd, and as tradition dictates, he earned the title of “Mr. Irrelevant”.
Under the strict rules of the NFL and according to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, a scale determines the salary of rookie players based on their selection order in the Draft, and that’s why Purdy signed with the 49ers for four years (which is the minimum) and $3,737,000, with an average annual salary of $934,252.
When he arrived in the Bay Area, he had the veteran Jimmy Garoppolo and the young Trey Lance ahead of him. But both got injured and that’s when Purdy appeared to capture the media attention of the whole country: he became the first “Mr. Irrelevant” to throw a touchdown pass and then the first rookie quarterback to win a game against a team led by Tom Brady. That season they made it to the Conference final.
The following year, Purdy was named the starter and earned the trust of coach Kyle Shanahan, with one of the best seasons for a quarterback in the history of San Francisco (a team that won four Super Bowls with the great Joe Montana), throwing for 4,280 yards and 31 touchdown passes. He finished fourth in the MVP voting, the 49ers won the National Conference, and lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs in overtime.
Although in the 2024 season Purdy couldn’t repeat such impressive numbers, this was due to serious injuries that left out of the season their main offensive weapons, such as running back Christian McCaffrey and receiver Brandon Aiyuk.
However, that did not diminish the confidence of the San Francisco organization in a young man who arrived as “irrelevant” and earned one of the best contracts in NFL history.