Brock Purdy ‘inching’ way to top-five NFL QB, Ryan Fitzpatrick claims

Ryan Fitzpatrick wants the football world to put some respect on Brock Purdy's name.

The former NFL quarterback and current Amazon Prime analyst recently revealed his top signal-callers in the league for NBC Sports, and he believes the 49ers phenom is close to being named alongside Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Geno Smith and Justin Herbert in his top five.

"Brock Purdy is inching his way up there," Fitzpatrick said. "You just watch him every single week -- he's an absolute machine. I mean, he doesn't make mistakes, and that's what that football team needs. It's not just him managing and dinking and dunking. He throws a catchable ball, he throws it accurately so they can catch and run, and he's distributing it to all their different playmakers.

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"I think he's a guy that probably needs a little more respect nationally, and we haven't seen it yet."

Since taking over under center for the 49ers in Week 13 of the 2022 NFL season, Purdy has yet to lose a game he started and finished. He led his team to the 2022 NFC Championship Game before getting injured in the first quarter. But after recovering from elbow surgery and through four games in 2023, Purdy and San Francisco remain undefeated and his 115.1 passer rating leads the league.

That dominance was on full display in Week 4 against the Arizona Cardinals, where Purdy set a 49ers franchise record for single-game completion percentage with the fourth-best mark by a quarterback in NFL history. In San Francisco's 35-16 win, Purdy completed 20 of 21 pass attempts (95.2 percent) for 283 yards with one touchdown, no interceptions and a passer rating of 134.6.

Kyle Shanahan has been searching for a franchise quarterback since he arrived in Santa Clara six years ago, and it appears as if the 49ers coach finally has found his guy. Fitzpatrick believes Purdy is the real deal, too -- and now, it's everyone else's turn.