49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has a new contract, but the team isn’t looking for anything new from him as a result.
That was the message from head coach Kyle Shanahan during a Thursday press conference. Purdy’s contract confirms that the 49ers see him as the centerpiece of their franchise and Shanahan was asked if that means the team is looking for Purdy to become a more aggressive leader of the team during the 2025 season.
“I want him to be the leader he’s always been,” Shanahan said, via a transcript from the team. “There’s no worse thing to do than ask people to do something extra just because they’re a contract. You know, that’s when you start making stuff up. Brock’s earned his contract and he’s going to earn what he gets going forward.”
Purdy made an improbable rise from being the final pick of the draft to starting a Super Bowl for the 49ers. That makes it easy to understand why the team would like him to stay the course rather than try to do anything different now that he’s playing on a big contract that ensures expectations for Purdy will be high for years to come.
San Francisco head coach Kyle Shanahan attributes some of his team’s struggles last season to coming off a loss in the Super Bowl. Which means that explanation won’t fly this year.
Shanahan said that a year ago, his players were worn down from a full postseason that ended with a heartbreaking overtime loss in Super Bowl LVIII. But this year, his players had a full offseason after going 6-11 and missing the playoffs, and he’s not going to accept anyone not being completely ready to go.
“The way I addressed it the most, was at our last meeting in January,” Shanahan said, via NBCSportsBayArea.com. “I just told the guys, I talked about how the season ended the year before, and how when I felt them all come back. I felt guys weren’t ready to come back and I understood that. But I told them how I really won’t understand it this year, not that that was right or wrong, but I couldn’t comprehend it. We’re off five weeks earlier, we all know how disappointed we are. And a lot of us have played a lot of football here.”
Shanahan’s 49ers have lost the Super Bowl twice, and both years they followed that with a six-win season. After their 6-10 season in 2020, they bounced back and made the NFC Championship Game following the 2021 season. Returning to winning form is the kind of response he expects from his players this year as well.
Left tackle Trent Williams is the only veteran star not present for the start of the 49ers’ voluntary Organized Team Activities.
Williams is working out at his Houston gym before next month’s mandatory minicamp.
“He’s been around,” coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “He was here at the beginning of — not OTAs — but Phase One [of the offseason program]. He hasn’t been here in a couple of weeks but expect to see him soon.”
The surprise was Williams’ participation in the start of the offseason program, something he doesn’t typically do.
Williams, 36, did not make the Pro Bowl in 2024, the first time that’s happened in a season he’s played since 2011. (He did not play in 2019.)
Williams played only 10 games last season, with an ankle injury sidelining him for the final seven games.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan shared a couple of bits of bad injury news when he spoke to reporters on Thursday.
Shanahan said at his press conference that safety Ji’Ayir Brown will be out of action until training camp. Brown recently had a surgical procedure on his ankle.
Brown appeared in every game and started 13 of them last season. He had 77 tackles and an interception in that action. The 2023 third-round pick had 35 tackles and two interceptions as a rookie.
The 49ers also have Malik Mustapha, Richie Grant, George Odum, Jason Pinnock, and fifth-round pick Marques Sigle at safety.
Shanahan also announced that wide receiver Ricky Pearsall will likely be out until camp with a hamstring injury.
49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall is not participating in the team’s organized team activities.
Pearsall likely won’t return until training camp, coach Kyle Shanahan said Thursday, after the 2024 first-round pick tweaked a hamstring in the offseason workouts.
Pearsall, 24, is expected to have a bigger second season after making 31 catches for 400 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie.
He missed the first six weeks of the season on the non-football injury list after being shot in the chest during an attempted robbery. Pearsall made his debut on Oct. 20 against the Chiefs.
Pearsall is projected a starter alongside Brandon Aiyuk and Jauan Jennings, though Aiyuk tore an ACL and MCL in the same game Pearsall played for the first time.
