The NFL wants close games. 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy doesn’t care.
As he enters his third NFL season and second full year as a starter, the last pick in the 2022 draft is ready to make things interesting by making things boring.
“I want to be dominant,” Purdy told Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Not just win games and feel like, ‘Eh.’ I want to be dominant with consistent decisions and feeling like we’re the top dogs every day.”
The 49ers have the players to get there. And that’s what’s motivating Purdy.
“With as good of a team that we have, I want to get to that point where we get to the third quarter, there’s a couple of drives that are crucial, I’m on top of my stuff, we convert on third downs, and we score touchdowns and the lead just gets out of hand,” Purdy told Silver. “It’s having that Tom Brady kind of feeling. Late in the game, it always felt like Tom was just gonna take over and not make it close. I feel like I can get to that.”
Purdy’s inspiration comes in part from the team’s ability to wipe out a 17-point halftime deficit in the NFC Championship.
“I feel like that was the mindset in that second half,” Purdy said. “In the offseason, looking back on it: How can we have that mindset every game? Screw the expectations. It’s football. And for four quarters, man, we’ve gotta have that bloody mindset of going and taking it. Every down, every series, every rep.”
The attitude has already shown itself in training camp. In the second practice, a walk-through, Purdy yelled at receiver Deebo Samuel for running the wrong route — as the ball was coming out of Purdy’s hand.
“I just want to be on top of it with the starters now, and sort of set the standard here,” Purdy told Silver. “Like, ‘Bro, let’s frickin’ be on it.’”
That’s what the 49ers need. They’ve made it to the NFC Championship in four of the last five years. They’ve gone to the Super Bowl twice. They’ve had double-digits lead in both games. And they failed to finish the job.
Purdy’s mission is to finish the job. Every time.
Dominant.
It’s a hell of a goal. Next up for Purdy is to go and do it.
