Brock Purdy caught the entire NFL world off guard last season while leading the 49ers to eight straight victories and their third NFC Championship Game in four years.
Coach Kyle Shanahan, however, wasn't as surprised. While speaking to Athletic's Tim Kawakami on "The TK Show," the 49ers coach went into detail about how he recognized Purdy's potential during the preseason. He noticed Purdy's talent with "every rep" he saw -- no matter how small.
"It was two reps for the first couple practices," Shanahan explained. "And what you noticed was he didn't mess around. He was so decisive on what he did. He didn't go in there and try to overly impress us with the first rep, like 'Hey, I'm going to get the big play.' Whatever play was called, whatever the two reps were, he did that.
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SIGN UP HERE "And he was like a machine. And by the end of OTAs, we were like, 'Man this young guy is a machine, I don't know if we're going to be able to keep him on the practice squad because he's probably going to do good in the season.' "
Shanahan went on to explain the 49ers' mindset and game plan for the 2022 season. Trey Lance was QB1. Nate Sudfeld was the backup. But when training camp began, Purdy's reps went from two plays to six -- and Shanahan noticed the same success.
"So then everything had to be debated to whether we could keep three guys or not," Shanahan continued. "Should we have the last pick in the draft, a rookie quarterback, be our backup to another basically rookie quarterback? Nate's [been in the league] for seven years, but Nate also has only started one game, so they're all kind of in the same boat.
"And as this was happening, Jimmy [Garoppolo]'s market was gone. And that's when it got so exciting because it was like, wait we have to keep Brock because he's played too good in the preseason. If Trey does get hurt, we don't know enough about Brock to go take over this great team that we have. And that's when we got Jimmy back in as the backup who we knew how good Jimmy has been."
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While the 49ers wanted to keep Purdy on the roster, the rookie being the third-string quarterback was a comfortable place for Shanahan. He was there if absolutely needed, but he wouldn't be thrown in the fire.
Until he was.
But Shanahan was so impressed with Purdy that he constantly would rave about the young signal-caller to 49ers owner Jed York. And when push came to shove and Purdy found himself as the starter under center for San Francisco, York kept one eye on Purdy and the other on Shanahan.
"I remember Brock got in for the first time against Kansas City in some mop-up time at the way end and threw a pick on the last deal," Shanahan recalled. "And I remember Jed going, 'I thought you said he was really good?' I was like, 'Jed, that was the last drive, that wasn't a good play.' And I think it was the next week that Jimmy got hurt, and I remember Jed always saying, 'Alright, you've been saying how good this guy is so now we're going to find out.' And I was like, 'Whoa whoa whoa. That was in practice. We got to be patient.'
"And he came in and was the exact same way in the games as he was in practice. And I think that's what's been easy for us as coaches is that even though it wasn't a lot, it was always consistent. The players saw it in practice. So when they saw it in the game they were like, 'Oh yeah we all knew this.' But you have to see it out there."
And the rest is history.