The Niners potentially have a tough negotiation ahead of them this offseason.
When it comes to offseason priorities, the San Francisco 49ers have a number of key goals for this offseason. But, arguably none of them are more prevalent than the impending contract extension for quarterback Brock Purdy, who is in line for a massive raise after spending the last three seasons on a seventh-round pick salary.
Purdy, 25, finished his second season as the 49ers full-time starter in 2024, ending with 3,864 passing yards, 20 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions, while completing 65.9 percent of his passes. Those numbers were all steps down from his historic efficiency in 2023, but that came with a number of injuries to his skill-position players, including season-ending ones to top wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and running back Christian McCaffrey.
Now, set to be on the final year of his four-year rookie contract, Purdy is in line for a hefty contract extension, and 49ers owner Jed York publicly shared that he wants the quarterback in the Bay Area for a long, long time.
In the past, San Francisco has historically struggled in contract negotiations with their star players, with extension talks sometimes leading to holdouts and even going far into the offseason, costing key time in training camp and the other phases of the offseason program.
Will they be able to do things differently with Purdy’s contract talks?
“First of all, the timing [of Jed York’s comments] here is interesting,” NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport shared on Tuesday. “We’re obviously early in the offseason. I think a lot of teams say, ‘you know what we’d like to do early in the offseason?’ Just cross off a big item on the to-do list and handle it early. The 49ers have tried it. Remember when they tried to do George Kittle’s contract and they went really early in free agency to try to meet with his agent and try to get things done, and they got things done like six months later. Brandon Aiyuk, they wanted to get done early. Instead, they got done right around the start of the season.
“Can they get Brock Purdy done at a reasonable time where there’s no hold-in, there’s no drama? They have not been able to for these big-time contracts, so I think that’s one question I think the 49ers are going to have figure out/solve. The other thing for me is, and obviously this math problem is a little bit harder: where does Brock Purdy fit in? He’s going to be a highly-paid quarterback, that’s not a question.
“But, Dak Prescott’s at $60 [million a year], does [Purdy] eclipse Dak? If not, then you have three quarterbacks: you have [Bengals QB Joe] Burrow, you have [Packers QB] Jordan Love, and you have [Jaguars] QB Trevor Lawrence at $55 [million a year]. Does he eclipse them? The question is: if his agent says yes and the 49ers say no, that’s as big a problem as you can get with contract negotiations that can really halt things. So yes, it’s not a question of whether the 49ers want Brock Purdy as their quarterback. They absolutely do. Many, many, many teams would. But, it’s just where does he fit in the pecking order that makes this [hard to figure out].”
There are a lot of questions the 49ers need to answer, with the biggest, as Rapoport alluded to, being the price tag they deem worthy for Purdy. That could be the determining factor as to how negotiations turn out over the next few months, but it should be a priority to get a deal done sooner than later, as the quarterback himself expressed a desire to be present for the entire offseason program.