Kyle Shanahan remembers the magical moment Brock Purdy stepped into the starting quarterback role for the 49ers.
The San Francisco coach recalled how he felt when Purdy entered the game for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo against the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 4, 2022.
“I just remember how good he was,” Shanahan told Greg Papa on “49ers Game Plan.” “The game that he came into, the duress that he was under, the style of defense they were playing at the time. The amount of blitzes that we had seen was probably the most we had seen in the six years I’d been here. At the time, he was our third quarterback to come in that year, so it wasn’t looking very good. But he didn’t hesitate, and right away, he was making plays.”
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Purdy helped spark the offense to a resounding 33-17 victory and gave the team a much-needed morale boost. Shanahan explained how the rookie quarterback's performance reassured him everything would be all right.
“It was an awesome game; we were so pumped about it,” Shanahan said to Papa. “But everyone was down a little bit after [the game] because we knew we had a good team and it was so unfortunate to lose Jimmy, which we knew would be for the year at the time. I’ll always remember going to bed that night and I was so upset about losing Jimmy. And I finally relaxed and started thinking, ‘Holy cow, this guy [Purdy] played unbelievable, we might be alright.’ ”
With Purdy under center, San Francisco rattled off six consecutive wins to finish the 2022-2023 NFL season with a 13-4 record. While disaster struck in the 2023 NFC Championship game, the groundwork had been laid for the young signal-caller.
As the last selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, no one expected Purdy to turn into a starting QB, let alone one that would lead the 49ers to deep playoff runs in consecutive seasons. Now, the young signal-caller is one of the best at his position and is due for a significant contract upgrade this offseason.
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Now Purdy is set to face Miami for the first time since that fateful day in 2022, with San Francisco’s slim playoff hopes in his hands.