How 49ers QB Brock Purdy emulates ultimate 'game controller' Tom Brady

When Brock Purdy was about to make his first NFL start two years ago — against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Matt Hasselbeck began a deep dive into the San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

Hasselbeck did what any good analyst would do — he talked to those who knew the QB best. One of those people was Seneca Wallace, his former teammate with the Seattle Seahawks, who, like Purdy, played at Iowa State. 

Hasselbeck said he was surprised to receive a long text of accolades about San Francisco's new starting quarterback. 

"It started out with: ‘Moxie. Better than people realize. 41 starts to his career. Throws a catchable ball. Way better athlete than people realize,'" Hasselbeck told FOX Sports. "It was like all these positive things. Seneca is a great dude, but he also keeps it real. He doesn't just throw compliments out. So, that stuck out to me right away.

"I've always thought Purdy's a great player. It's sort of amazing to me that everyone wants to make an excuse for his success because of the head coach or the talent around him. But I'm really not at all surprised." 

Like Purdy, Hasselbeck was a late-round draft pick who had to grind his way to a starting quarterback job in the NFL. Another late-round pick, one who ascended to become the greatest player in NFL history, will be calling the Cardinals-49ers game for FOX on Sunday. Hasselbeck sees some similarities between Purdy and Brady, pushing back on Purdy's "game manager" tag. 

"I don't look at ‘game manager’ as a negative phrase, because I believe the best game manager of all time was Tom Brady," Hasselbeck said. "And maybe I would use a different word. I would say game controller. I am in control of this game. I dictate how this game goes.

"There are some quarterbacks who play like a game manager, like, 'Let's see what the defense does' and will kind of play it this way. And there are other quarterbacks that are like, ‘I don't care. And we don't care.' And that's what I see out of the 49ers. They're definitely one of those teams that are like, ‘We dictate how it goes.’"

Much has been said about how Purdy would perform without Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, who have missed time early this season due to injuries. But so far, Purdy has put up the same impressive stats without his frontline players, quieting those who doubted his ability to lead a team as a franchise quarterback.

Purdy is second in the NFL in passing yards (1,130) and sixth in passer rating (104.9). He's also near the top of the league in some advanced metrics like EPA per drop back (No. 3 at 45.4) and is No. 1 in the league with 18 pass completions of 20-plus yards. 

Through his first 25 NFL starts, Purdy has completed 69.1% of his passes for 6,508 yards, with 47 touchdowns. His passer rating of 112.6 is the highest of any quarterback in his first 25 games since 1970. 

Purdy got his first NFL win against Brady, a 35-7 victory at Levi's Stadium on Dec. 11, 2022. Overall, Purdy is 19-6 as the Niners' starter and helped to lead San Francisco to the brink of a Super Bowl victory last year against the Kansas City Chiefs, who won in overtime.

Before entering his third NFL season, Purdy said he wants to be more like Brady, showing a consistent ability to close out games and put teams away.

"It's having that Tom Brady kind of feeling," Purdy told the San Francisco Chronicle in July. "Late in the game, it always felt like Tom was just gonna take over and not make it close. I feel like I can get to that." 

Someone familiar with that mindset is Joe Montana, the greatest quarterback in 49ers history. 

"He's been doing a great job," Montana told FOX Sports of Purdy. "He understands the offense, the people around him and what their capabilities are. He doesn't force balls. But he also understands when there's a time to force it. He's managed the offense well.

"Usually, the team who turns the ball over the least ends up having the best chance to win. And he doesn't [turn it over] a lot. He understands it's easy to dump the ball down because, just like when John [Taylor] and Jerry [Rice] were around, you can dump the ball down there and those guys could go the distance easily. He's got those kinds of weapons on his side, and he understands how to use them." 

Dan Manucci served as Purdy's private quarterback coach from his freshman year in high school until the lead up to the 2022 NFL Draft. What he saw in Purdy back then was a laser-focused athlete willing to do anything to make it to the highest level. 

"He would be like, ‘Thank you sir, may I have another? What else do you have for me?'" Manucci told FOX Sports. "So, when I see that, with all the stuff that Brian Griese and Kyle Shanahan are throwing at him, he knows how to drink out of the fire hose and not have it spew out all over the place.

"He always learned how to process quickly, deal with the information and then communicate it out on the field. And then on top of that, he's never had that deer in the headlights look. And if there's something that's overwhelming for him, he'll get it figured out. He's always building. When we text each other, his mantra is, ‘Let's keep moving forward. Let's keep building.' So, he's a building blocks kind of guy. He's never satisfied with what he's doing."

Asked for an example of Purdy's ability to control a game, Hasselbeck pointed to the QB's pinpoint pass against the New England Patriots last Sunday. The Patriots tried to bait him to throw to a receiver on an underneath route that they made look open, with a defensive lineman dropping into coverage to intercept the ball.

However, Purdy did not take the cheese. 

"Jerod Mayo deserves an award for how perfect the defensive call was, but he didn't take the bait," Hasselbeck said. "Instead, he realized the only opportunity he had — and it was a great opportunity. It was like it's us or nobody, it's third-and-10 and we got a field goal kind of a thought. But he gives Kittle an opportunity.

"Know your personnel. Give him a chance to touch, compete and go fight for the ball. And he will make that play. You know your guy. And it was a touchdown. And it was probably one of the more impressive touchdowns I saw this week. It was set up for him to throw an interception. And instead, he puts a dagger in the heart of the Patriots."

Hasselbeck said those types of decision-making skills are what makes Purdy a game controller and one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Purdy can make every throw on the field, and he seldom misses the easy lay-ups when Shanahan has schemed someone open for a big play. 

"Ultimately, I think what's great about this quarterback and this team, is it makes the defense defend the whole field," Hasselbeck said. "They have the ability to move the pocket. They can play the drop-back game, the empty game, the big-people game. And I think he's really done a good job of what I refer to as ‘KYP’ — know your personnel."

That has been especially important for Purdy early this season, with his top playmakers in and out of the lineup.

"It's not necessarily about who isn't out there, but who is out there," Hasselbeck said. "And he does a really good job of throwing the appropriate ball to the appropriate person."

It's all about controlling the game.

Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.

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