Brock Purdy slowly but surely is earning league-wide respect around the NFL, and he appears to be doing the same within Kyle Shanahan's 49ers system.
Entering his third NFL season and second as San Francisco's starter, Purdy has proven himself as more than just a feel-good story after going from Mr. Irrelevant to a Pro Bowl quarterback. But the 24-year-old still knows his place in Shanahan's offense and is OK with trusting his coach's schemes.
Purdy feels he has the freedom, however, to insert his input and make a last-minute change when needed, all while acknowledging he still is learning from Shanahan and his offensive wizardry.
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"When people say freedom, I think a lot of people think of a quarterback walking up and just completely changing the play and completely doing his own thing out there," Purdy said on "Audacy's The TK Show." "You've seen it in the NFL here and there. Kyle schemes up things really, really well. He's one of the best playcallers in the league. So for me, I'm still looking at it like I'm learning from this guy. However he sees it and whatever he's calling, I'm going to trust that and we're going to roll with it.
"But there are certain times and situations where we get looks that I've seen multiple times within the pass protections or being hot where I think, yeah, the next level is to feel comfortable enough to be able to change protection or to be able to give a receiver a look and give them a route that I see. And I think he has given me that freedom. But over time, it's been continuing to learn from him and grow from him and what he does and calls has been successful. So there's a fine line to it but I'm not going to walk out this year going, 'Alright, I've played enough football I'm going to just start calling my own things and Kyle's going to 100 percent trust me.' No. I still have to learn and believe and trust what he's calling is right.
"I'm going to play within that system and if I ever do see something, I can do it. But I have to be able to come back off the sideline and tell him why I did that. That's just having a good understanding of football."
Purdy is coming off an MVP-caliber 2023 season in which he ranked No. 1 in passer rating (113.0), yards per attempt (9.6) and QBR (72.6) while leading the 49ers to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
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The Iowa State product said he made some changes to Shanahan's play calls "a handful of times" last season but "not much," emphasizing that it's his responsibility to make sure he's making the right decision on the field.
While Purdy still is finding his way and voice in Shanahan's system, the young signal-caller already is impressing his teammates with his command of San Francisco's offense during training camp this summer.
A step in the right direction toward more freedom with the offense.
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