Kyle Shanahan had plenty of praise for Brock Purdy as the 49ers' quarterback wraps up his record-setting 2023 NFL season.
During the latest episode of NBC Sports Bay Area's "49ers Game Plan," which debuted Friday night, Shanahan explained to Greg Papa what Purdy has meant to him this season with how well the team has been doing with him under center.
“For him to stay healthy through this whole year, to go through all the stuff and really to have the type of year where [it] could have been an MVP-type year, still could be," Shanahan told Papa. "He definitely played like an MVP.”
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Purdy has been on a tear this season, leading the 49ers to the NFC West title as well as the NFC's best record and a first-round bye in the playoffs, with his name consistently being mentioned in the MVP discussion. Not only that, but Purdy set the franchise record for passing yards in a season, a noteworthy accomplishment considering Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young came before him.
Shanahan made sure to point out how much that record means for Purdy and the 49ers' offense as a whole.
“For him to set the record that, I mean — how good of an organization do we have with the history, how many quarterbacks have been in through here, how many offenses have and for Brock to do that — it’s a huge [testament] to the whole offense and all those guys," Shanahan said. "But it’s just so cool for him [Purdy] and it couldn’t have happened to a better guy.”
Purdy’s first Pro Bowl campaign comes on the heels of a wildly successful rookie season last year which saw him rise from the third-string QB to starter in a matter of weeks due to season-ending injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. The season was not without its setbacks though as Purdy tore the UCL in his throwing arm in the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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There were questions about whether Purdy would return to the same level this season, something Shanahan pointed out was a real concern for the organization at the beginning of the year, but he still was confident in Purdy’s ability to bounce back.
“The way he played as a rookie and those situations, just kind of blew my mind," Shanahan told Papa. "That’s why we were so confident with him in the offseason, but to have that big of an injury just left so much in question that we were not sure how it was going to go and how he was going to recover. “
Shanahan referred to Purdy as “the real deal” multiple times in the past, something that is not only true but also due to Shanahan’s folksy vocab.
“People bring up me saying ‘the real deal’ and that is just my lack of vocabulary, me just trying to say that what he did last year was real, that wasn’t just lucky and stuff, that was truly playing quarterback at a very high level, and he did it very consistently and that’s all we’ve seen," Shanahan said.
Purdy, who won't play in the Week 18 regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Rams, and the 49ers will have plenty of time before they host an NFC Divisional Round game at Levi’s Stadium on either Saturday, Jan 20 or Sunday Jan. 21.